Areva's Anne Lauvergeon denied 3rd term

Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon was denied a third term after the French government replaced her weeks before her contract expires, denting the career of one France’s most high-profile executives.

Lauvergeon will be succeeded at the world’s largest maker of nuclear plants by Luc Oursel, Areva’s head of marketing and projects, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government said late yesterday. Lauvergeon this week repeated her desire to extend her tenure to a third term.

The decision ends years of speculation about Lauvergeon’s career, and comes as the future of atomic energy is called into question following the nuclear disaster in Japan in March. Her tenure was marred by construction delays and cost overruns on a nuclear plant in Finland.