RWE

RWE is an international energy and water business, with interests in Germany, the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, and the US.

In the UK, it owns Thames Water Utilities, the largest water and sewage company in the country, with over 4,000 employees and 13 million customers across London and south-east England.

It also owns the energy firm npower, which supplies electricity and gas to 6.2 million customers. RWE nPower has major interests in renewable energy and developed the UK's first major offshore wind farm.

Subsidiaries

According to Sourcewatch, the operating divisions of RWE are:

• RWE Power is Germany’s "biggest power producer" and generates electricity from coal, lignite, nuclear and gas-fired power stations;
• RWE Innogy which is the renewable energy arm of RWE with interests in onshore and offshore wind farms, hydro power stations and biomass projects in Europe;
• RWE Dea which produces gas and oil in Europe and North Africa;
• RWE Supply & Trading which operates RWE's non-regulated gas activities and European energy trading business;
• RWE Energy which is the sales and grid management company for customers in Continental Europe; and
• RWE nPower which operates solely in the UK and includes the generation of from coal, gas and oil fired power stations as well as the sale of electricity and gas.

RWE Nukem background

Nukem was set up in 1960 and was one of Germany's first nuclear power firms. It became a subsidiary of TESSAG Technische Systems und Services Aktiengesellschaft (Tessag) in 1999, which was later to become RWE Solutions. In 2001 Nukem bought AEA Technology's nuclear engineering arm.

Nukem now offers design and build, decommissioning, land remediation, consultancy, radiation safety and nuclear support services. Its annual turnover in the UK is excess of £60 million, and £245 million worldwide. UK staff are based at permanent offices in Risley, Dounreay, Sellafield, Harwell and Winfrith.

Leaks and dodgy reports

In October 2005, decommissioning work on a lab at Dounreay was stopped after routine tests on eight contractors working for Nukem suggested they had breathed in traces of plutonium. According to the local newspaper:

The lab, where reprocessing experiments were carried out on highly enriched uranium and plutonium, was shut down a year ago following a similar health scare involving 15 workers. Tests showed that some had inhaled tiny amounts of plutonium.

In 1999, the reliability of an 'independent' Nukem report on the safety of nuclear waste transportation in Britain, commissioned by the government, was called into question after it emerged that the firm had close ties to BNFL, including a joint £54m contract to decommission a nuclear reactor at Sellafield. Nukem was paid £50,000 by the government to carry out a safety survey of BNFL trains carrying spent nuclear fuel. Unsurprisingly, it gave BNFL the all-clear.

RWE and Greenpeace

In 2001 RWE and the environmental pressure group Greenpeace entered into a 'partnership' - backed by Tony Blair - to promote 'npower Juice', a "clean, green electricity at no extra cost to you or the planet". "Through our clean electricity, we can help people across the country make a difference," explained Andy Duff, CEO of RWE npower. "For every unit of electricity taken from the National Grid by customers of npower Juice, we will replace it with a unit of electricity from renewable sources. This will effectively offset their electricity use and help reduce the greenhouse gasses entering the atmosphere." Greenpeace, which does not benefit financially from the agreement, said that the project will lead to the creation of the North Hoyle wind farms off the coast of Wales.

Who runs RWE Nukem?

RWE Nukem's website lists its senior executives. As at 10 March 2005 they were:

• Dr Michael Down, managing director - has been associated with the nuclear industry all his working life. He researched fast reactors and nuclear fusion at Nottingham University for eight years and then worked at Westinghouse before joining Nukem.
• Ken Jackson, major projects - former board member of Ingenco Ltd, Kemgas Ltd, BNFL and Urenco. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
• Keith Collett, marketing -previously worked for BNFL and NNC Limited.
• Mike Brewin, engineering & consultancy - has worked in the nuclear industry since 1975.
• Frank Cullinane, finance - previously held senior financial positions at Manweb Contracting, W H Smith and other contracting and engineering businesses.
• Dr Richard Birch, health physics - a career health physicist and chairman of the nuclear industry's Internal Radiations Dosimetry Group.

PR

Burson-Marsteller provided consultancy services for Thames Water in 2003/4 and for RWE npower and RWE Thames Water during 2005.

Executive Board

• Dr Jürgen Großmann CEO (Since Oct 2007, until Sept 30th 2012). Also Owner and Managing Director of Georgsmarienhütte Holding GmbH-heavy metals company, and other high powered appointments.
• Dr Rolf Pohlig CFO since 2007 - previously E.ON and VEBA AG-large German oil, chemical and transport company.
• Alwin Fitting CHO - has worked his way up in RWE since 1974, starting as an electrician.
• Dr Rolf Martin Schmitz - previously E.ON and VEBA AG
• Dr Ulrich Jobs COO - with RWE since 2003.
• Dr Leonhard Birnbaum - previously Senior Partner (director) of McKinsey and Company, Inc.; and co-author of McKinsey’s study on the costs and potential of avoiding greenhouse gases in Germany.

Corporate memberships

• Industry and Parliament Trust

Resources

• Iain Grant, 'Inspectorate allays fears over run of mishaps at Dounreay', Press and Journal, October 19, 2005.
• Anthony Barnett, 'Nuclear safety review tainted by firm's links', The Observer, August 29, 1999.