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RAAMAD IN REGISTRY NO. 51
INDEX
2 4 FFR 1921
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GUANGDONG NUCLEAR PROJECT
1.
PA
REGISTRY Action Taken
AN 24
Butik. 1. Murtney 2. PA.
Mr Manzie held a meeting of his strategy group on Friday 13 February. Apart from officials from the Whitehall departments concerned, those present included Dr Marshall and representatives from GEC (Messrs Davidson and Lippitt), NNC and BNFL.
2.
Mr Manzie began by giving an account of his talks with the French on 9 February on the lines of the report in telno INDUS 51 to BTC Hong Kong.
3.
The
Mr Lippitt reported on GEC's discussions with Framatome. These had now been completed and GEC were now ready to initial an agreement which met their requirements. The agreement required the approval of the two governments and could not be signed until that had been obtained. position of UK firms interested in BONP and fuel were protected to the extent that the agreement stipulated that these aspects would be subject to further consideration. The agreement was exclusive in that it tied Framatome and GEC together unless and until the customer made it clear that he did not wish to do a deal with either party. GEC were under pressure from Framatome and from CLP to sign the agreement and wished to do so as soon as possible.
4.
Dr Marshall described his recent discussion with the new Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Issues in the State Department on the lines of Washington telno 500.
5.
In further discussion the GEC representatives were asked by Dr Marshall and Mr Stewart (NNC) to explain their reasons for wishing to conclude a deal with the French in greater detail. Mr Davidson said that GEC had become involved in the project because they had been pressed to take an interest in it by a valued customer in Hong Kong (CLP). They had similarly been pressed to do so by the DOI. They had been invited at short notice to make a presentation in China. Although this had not gone as well as it might have done (largely because GEC had not previously manufactured turbines of the type required) GEC had been pressed to continue their involvement. They had had discussions with both Framatome and Westinghouse. Both companies had offered broadly the same type of collaboration and GEC had said that they could work with either. Thereafter GEC had come under pressure to conclude an agreement with the French from CLP, the Governor of Hong Kong and from HM Ambassador in Peking (a reference to the meeting in December in Hong Kong). They had also reached the commercial conclusion that their best chance of obtaining business in Guangdong lay in co-operation with the French.
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