A letter sent to the French government and leaked to newspapers has the company’s chief executive calling for the construction of a 1,100 MW facility, using smaller mid-size third generation reactors developed by Areva and Mitsubishi. The Atmea 1 reactor is smaller than the EPR design used by Areva and EDF, and intended for countries with smaller power transmission grids. GDF wants the Rhone Valley plant to become a showcase for the Atmea 1 reactor, and could be built shortly after 2020. GDF has stated it needs to be able to offer more nuclear choices than the EPR in order to win deals abroad. Last month, the French consortium including GDF, EDF, Areva and Total lost the $20 billion UAE plant contract to a South Korean consortium.