by Duriem Calderin, Engineer, AREVA Inc.

Over the past year AREVA employees and local NA-YGN AREVA Chapter at the Richland, WA, site have been actively supporting the STEM education program (science, technology, Engineering, Math) at DELTA High School. This school is highly recognized in the Tri-Cities by its commitment to developing students and engaging them in STEM careers from an early age.

AREVA employees have partnered with DELTA High School in Richland to offer mentorship and to participate as judges in school-wide engineering and science fair projects. It is estimated by the end of 2014, AREVA employees will have contributed a total of 260 volunteer hours to the STEM educational programs.

The main contributors in organizing these events at the AREVA site in Richland are Jim Tolar and Scott Adair, NA-YGN outreach community chair.

Tolar said that this program is very important to AREVA because, “It is [also] a way to get the community to recognize that AREVA is here in the community and is part of the community for the long run.”

DELTA high school principal, Jenny Rodriquez, has thanked AREVA employees for their ongoing commitment to STEM education. She especially thanked the group of young professional engineers coming from NAYGN to participate at these events.

“Interactions with the NAYGN group have increased visibility of young professionals, especially engineers, allowing our students to see themselves entering STEM fields in the near future,” she said.

Rodriquez also said that AREVA’s commitment to giving back to the community will have short and long-term benefits for the company. “The benefits to AREVA for participation in this partnership are both short-term, such as the excitement generated in staff by sharing their profession with young people,” she said, “and long-term, such as the connection to qualified interns and future employees.”

Read more STEM blog posts.

 

By Mike Rencheck, CEO, AREVA Inc. North America

America has observed and celebrated African-American culture and heritage throughout the month of February since 1976. The origins date back to a week-long celebration in 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas, The celebration reminds us of the importance of continuing to learn from our history, honoring the contribution of those who have guided our country toward greater equality and opportunity. We draw inspiration from their creativity, innovation, and pursuit of better ways of doing and being.

It’s with this spirit that we recognize the contribution of diversity in National Engineer’s Week.

Celebrated the third week in February, it was founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1951 to raise awareness of the contribution of engineers and the opportunities available via engineering career paths. At the intersection of African-American history month and National Engineer’s Week is the opportunity for businesses to recognize and engage the talents and perspectives of diverse communities in building a competitive workforce.

At AREVA, of our current entry level engineers, 41% of our employees are women or minorities, and we’re continuing to build on this solid foundation. From engaging with Historically Black Colleges and Universities like Morgan State University, to partnering with on-campus engineering societies including the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers in our recruiting efforts, we are aligning our talent management strategies with our sustainable and diverse workforce objectives.

As a forward-looking energy company, our recognition that by 2016, 39% of the nuclear energy workforce will be eligible for retirement has long fueled outreach to grade schools and colleges to spark interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career paths. On the local level, last week, AREVA employees at sites across the U.S. celebrated National Engineer’s Week through community and classroom outreach, with an emphasis on bringing greater awareness of engineering and STEM career pathways to schools like Druid Hills Academy near our headquarters in Charlotte, NC, and “The Governor’s STEM Academy” near our “Operational Center of Excellence” for products and services in Lynchburg, VA.

As an Ambassador for the Department of Energy’s Minorities in Energy initiative, I believe it is our responsibility to invest in younger generations, creating opportunity and supporting diversity as a driver of innovation and prosperity for the future, critical to both our companies and communities.

Recent government reports tallying the lifecycle costs of the entire U.S. surplus weapons plutonium disposition program have been improperly applied by commenters to a single project within the program called the mixed oxide fuel fabrication facility (MFFF), or MOX Project, under construction in South Carolina.

Selected by the U.S. Department of Energy as the best option to fulfill the United States’ nonproliferation obligation, the MOX Project facility is more than 60% complete and on track for delivery at the projected remaining $4 billion expense. Under the management of Shaw-AREVA MOX Services, constructing the MOX Project has played a key role in national and regional economies by re-establishing a U.S. nuclear energy supply chain that, for the first time in more than 20 years, has trained and employed thousands of skilled American craft workers in a variety of suppliers across multiple states.

This same highly skilled MOX Project American workforce has nearly compiled a notable 18 million safe work hours, and fulfilled every regulatory and environmental requirement – a significant accomplishment for such a large construction project. For example, for four years in a row, the National Regulatory Commission (NRC) reviews have been entirely positive and – with the requirements of more than 50 permits and licenses to meet – there have been no environmental violations since site preparation work started.

The MOX Project, as part of the U.S. plutonium disposition program, will deliver a crucial component of America’s international nonproliferation agreement with Russia, but it is not the only project in the disposition program. There are multiple significant projects represented in the reported program’s lifecycle sum, as well as the costs of DOE to oversee the various projects.

Commenters lumping all of these program lifecycle expenses under the single heading of the MOX Project are sowing confusion and uncertainty, and incorrectly representing the value of this important nonproliferation mission.

The MOX Project needs to be completed as part of the over-arching plutonium disposition program to honor America’s agreement, deliver on its crucial security mission, and serve as an example of international cooperation and technological achievement. And most importantly, fulfilling our nonproliferation obligation demonstrates that the United States still leads, still delivers, and still pursues actions to make the world a better place.

Guest post by Ken Cooper, Physics / Earth Science teacher
Jefferson Forest H.S., Bedford County Public Schools

On Tuesday, February 18, Mr. Creasy and Ms. Weinmeister from AREVA visited my 2nd period Physics class as part of promoting Engineers Week. They briefly shared with the class areas of engineering at AREVA, and how students can get become involved in engineering. Mr. Creasy told them about a couple of different paths they could follow; of course, focusing on how AREVA can help the students, hoping they would become future employees. He stressed the need for the young people to get involved with engineering, because there’s an increasing need in this area due to technological advancements, retirees, and other reasons.

He also shared how AREVA can offer them tuition help, internships, and job experience, all while attending college. I think some of them will be considering looking into this in the future.

The students seemed to enjoy the speakers (and not just because it wasn’t me teaching). Some of the students asked about how their own interests are connected to AREVA.  Others asked about some specifics about AREVA’s nuclear and renewable energy businesses, or connections about AREVA to other companies, privacy issues, or other concerns. There were a lot of good questions. Both speakers answered the students’ questions well, sometimes using video presentations or pictures to do the talking for them, which is what prompted some of the other questions.

The presentation concluded with a team-building exercise I’ve seen and done myself that the students liked. It was pretty cool watching them use Physics and teamwork to design and build something out of spaghetti and marshmallows.

I hope to have AREVA and others over to speak to my Earth Science class, or as I teach math classes in the future.

Thanks, AREVA!

Yesterday, at the Platts 10th Annual Nuclear Energy Conference, AREVA’s Chief Technology Officer Finis Southworth participated on a panel discussing the current status and challenges of new nuclear power programs worldwide.

With AREVA as the only company on the panel representing in-house new build and next-generation nuclear technology experience, Southworth’s presentation provided unique insight into the new build landscape. In discussion, he stressed that a strong regulatory framework, stable supply chain, long-term government support, and strong customer/supplier relationships are needed for new build programs to thrive.

With AREVA’s Gen III+ 1,600MWe EPR reactor, the 1,000MWe ATMEA1 reactor and the 1,250MWe boiling water KERENA reactor, plus fast breed and High-temperature Gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) technology in its portfolio, AREVA is a key player in the global new build sector.

Here in North America, Southworth emphasized that AREVA Inc.’s experience and understanding of the entire nuclear fuel cycle and technology makes it a leading supplier in the U.S. energy market – from mining to fuel fabrication, new builds to components, and outage excellence to safe used nuclear fuel management.

Explore our complete portfolio at us.areva.com.

In a guest column on The Hill‘s Congress Blog, AREVA Inc North America CEO Mike Rencheck is making the case for nuclear power as a viable addition to the President’s call for executive branch agencies to obtain 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020—because nuclear energy’s low emissions (compared to fossil fuels and biofuels) are better not only for the environment, but also for public health.

Rencheck highlights several studies outlining the public health benefits of nuclear energy, but perhaps none is more powerful than the one from NASA scientists James Hansen and Pushker Kharecha, finding that nuclear power globally has prevented an average of 1.8 million air-pollution-related deaths that would have otherwise occurred if nuclear energy had been replaced with fossil fuels—a number that could grow to 7 million lives saved over the next 40 years.

He also writes about how the nuclear energy industry is constantly building, renewing, and improving America’s nuclear reactor fleet, continually preparing to meet the challenge of America’s energy future:

Leading U.S. nuclear energy technology providers, like AREVA, play an ongoing role in this daily nuclear energy renewal, deploying its highly skilled workforce and delivering technology innovations to keep nuclear facilities running across the country. For example, after installing the first digital instrumentation and control system at a U.S. nuclear energy facility in 2011, AREVA successfully completed the installation of a third system in December. This state-of-the-art technology helps modernize equipment in the current nuclear fleet, and improves plant safety, reliability, capability and longevity.

Please take a look at Rencheck’s column, and share it with your social networks.

(While you’re at it, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates!)

In December 2013, AREVA TN employees Ashley Spry and Jibu Abraham visited two technical classes at Hammond High School in Columbia, Md., to talk about classroom and industrial safety. During the discussion, they provided an overview of nuclear energy and showed students how power plants work using a boiling water reactor puzzle depicting its major components.

“The students were very engaged and eager to participate,” said Ashley. “I was so impressed with one student who was able to explain nuclear power back to the class after such a brief introduction to the topic. He explained it flawlessly, from the fuel pellets, to fission, all the way to the turbine, generator, and transmission lines.”

They also gave a presentation on AREVA’s commitment to safety, and presented the class with a new table saw, along with safety tips for operating the table saw and information on its modern safe-stop technology.

What led Ashley and Jibu to offer this safety presentation and new saw to the class? Another AREVA TN employee, Mark Woynicz, had mentioned Hammond High during a company community outreach meeting, and noted that the technical class was using a table saw not equipped with the latest safety features. Jibu recognized this need as a great opportunity for AREVA TN to sponsor a program focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, and to act on AREVA’s commitment to safety as an example to the students.

“Most of our outreach is intended to spark students’ interest in STEM-related careers. In this case, the students already have the interest, so we wanted to give them something more,” said Ashley. “In the nuclear industry, safety is always first and foremost, and we think it’s important to share our safety culture whenever we are engaged in community outreach.”

It’s “safe” to say they did just that! Omar Q., a student at Hammond, wrote Ashley and Jibu the following letter:

Dear Mr. Abraham and Ms. Spry,

Thank you for your presentation at Hammond! It was very interesting and informative, and has opened many new ideas for me in the field of engineering. Nuclear engineering is a very complex field, but it was explained so that all of us could understand it. In my own opinion, I think that nuclear energy is extremely interesting and promising, and that it could change the way power is produced. I appreciate the time you spent on your presentation at our school, and I’m certain that through the presentation, you have demonstrated the endless possibilities that engineering can provide. I also want to express my gratitude for providing a new table saw that I’m sure will make woodworking safer for all engineering students!

Sincerely,

Omar Q.

Our friends at NEI have a new piece up about the nuclear industry’s latest tools for monitoring the water level in used nuclear fuel storage pools, including AREVA’s through-air radar system.

Along with the article’s general content, this is a great opportunity to add performance details about AREVA Inc.‘s groundbreaking efforts in used fuel pool level instrumentation—efforts that are already set to further enhance safety at nuclear energy facilities throughout North America.

In partnership with VEGA Americas, Inc., we’ve developed state-of-the-art tools like the VEGAPULS™ system to monitor used fuel storage pools. VEGAPULS is a through-air radar system that works by measuring the reflection times of microwave pulses to calculate a pinpoint measurement of water levels.

The benefit of using through-air radar is that it works even under adverse conditions—conditions in which used fuel pool monitoring is most important. Field tests of the VEGAPULS through-air radar demonstrated that it can efficiently handle environments containing saturated steam, dense smoke, boiling water, and floating debris without any loss of accuracy —at a range of up to 212 feet.

Check out this video demonstration of our used fuel pool instrumentation:

We’re proud to be doing our part to help utilities safely deliver and manage on-demand, clean-air nuclear energy.

Localized labor is more than just our business model, it is AREVA Inc.’s philosophy to buy and source locally whenever possible, as seen in projects in the works in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Our onsite jobs bring in several million additional dollars to the local community each year and boost regional economic development for the life of the project. For example, projects this year in just Ohio and Pennsylvania total about $30 million spent.

As an AREVA Inc. company, AREVA TN’s operations at each utility generate an additional 25 to 30 high paying skilled jobs. These workers support the onsite construction of the NUHOMS® Horizontal Storage Modules and the Fuel Loading Operations. Workers are hired from the local area including union workers in accordance with local rules and practices.

With several decades of reliable performance in used nuclear fuel services in the U.S., we know where to find quality work, and where to find it locally!

At an AREVA TN project scheduled for Pennsylvania, skilled work will be handled by Iron Workers Local 3, Operating Engineers Local 66 (IOUE), Laborers Local DCWP (LIUNA), Cement Masons Local 526 (OPCMIA), and Boilermakers Local 154. Across the river in Ohio, a potential project would be handled by our labor network with Ironworkers Local 55, Operating Engineers Local 18, Laborers Local 480, and Cement Masons Local 886.

AREVA TN delivers on our company-wide localization commitment and supports the American labor required to grow the U.S. nuclear industry.

AREVA Canada Executive Vice President Jean-François Béland was awarded the rank of Chevalier (Knight) in the French National Order of the Legion of Honour on Dec. 2. French Ambassador to Canada Philippe Zeller presented the award to Béland at a reception in Ottawa hosting more than 100 distinguished guests.

This distinction recognizes Béland’s role as head of AREVA Canada in furthering French-Canadian economic and cultural relations. The Legion of Honour was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 and is France’s highest decoration.

Béland joined AREVA Canada in 2008 after spending a year at AREVA’s global headquarters in Paris. He serves on the Board of the Canadian Nuclear Association and is a Member of the Energy Council of Canada. He also is a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Canada.