Guest post by Simona De Silvestro, Driver of No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy IndyCar

This year’s Indy 500 was exciting both on and off the track. The day before the race, 75 Girl Scouts descended on the KV Racing Technology hospitality tent for a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) workshop.

When I arrived at the tent, the girls were divided between five different activities exploring the technology behind racing and electricity. A Girl Scout from each activity described what they had learned throughout the afternoon: the role of thrust, lift and drag on my Nuclear Clean Air Energy IndyCar, how to generate electricity using a homemade generator, nuclear fission, and the importance of engineering design in buildings. Each of these activities was led by AREVA engineers and volunteers from the Purdue Minority Engineering Program and the Nuclear Energy Institute. The Girl Scouts also explored the anatomy of an atom through a painting activity with Suzy Hobbs Baker of the Nuclear Literacy Project, and gave me the final product as a gift – I think it turned out really cool.

The workshop was a great way to raise awareness of clean energy and to engage the girls in activities that reinforce that science and engineering are both important and fun. After rotating through all five activities, the girls earned a special Nuclear Clean Air Energy patch for their hard work.

Both racing and clean energy depend on people with STEM skills and we need to encourage kids to pursue STEM career paths. I think it’s cool that I’m able to engage kids through their interest in racing to think about the importance of clean energy and how they can get involved.

AREVA Inc. CEO Mike Rencheck sat down with Chris Newkumet from Platts TV on Sunday, May 19, to share his perspective on the nuclear industry and AREVA’s Forward-Looking Energy vision. This vision articulates the company’s outlook through a discussion of growth, people and responsibility.

“AREVA is at the forefront of a daily nuclear energy renewal that is rooted in our people and our responsibility to put safety first and foremost in everything that we do,” said Mike Rencheck, CEO, AREVA Inc. “Platts Energy Week TV was the ideal venue for sharing this vision due to its reputation and influence among key stakeholders in the energy industry.”

In the interview, Mr. Rencheck discussed the highly competitive North American electric power market, as well as politics surrounding the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project (MFFF) designed to make reactor fuel from nuclear-weapons-grade plutonium, a project that recently reached 15 million safe-hours worked.

Used nuclear fuel management is a topic that comes up frequently in the world of politics and anti-nuclear activists. The U.S. used fuel policy has been dominated by the once-through cycle concept, which resulted in used fuel being labeled as a waste product—a waste product with up to 96% recoverable and reusable energy. To best make use of this valuable resource, AREVA supports the implementation of a sustainable, safe used nuclear fuel management strategy for the United States’ nuclear reactor fleet.

Safe used fuel management is forward-looking. It is about keeping our options open, knowing that the solution can be managed from different angles that can provide a variety of benefits, all of which could be realized now … from interim storage to recycling to ultimate safe disposal. We have a responsibility to safely manage today’s used fuel to create a better future for generations to come.
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If the United States is going to honor its international nonproliferation agreement with Russia, then the MOX Project is the best option based on time, money, security and environmental goals.

In 1998, the United States and Russia committed to each other and the world that each country would permanently convert 34 tons of weapons grade plutonium into non-weapons material. After extensive research and analysis of multiple options, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) chose to convert the plutonium into fuel for the American nuclear reactor fleet as a low cost fuel supply for decades of low carbon electricity production. The DOE affirmed its decision in the July 2012 Draft Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, stating on page S-33: “The MOX Fuel Alternative is DOE’s Preferred Alternative for surplus plutonium disposition.”
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From the Aiken Standard this week: This article begins with a stark warning for fulfilling our international nonproliferation commitments, “If the MOX Project has its funding cut by 50 percent in the FY 14 budget, as many have said is likely to happen, this could put the entire project in danger.”

In the article, Kelly Trice, Shaw AREVA MOX Services president and COO, explains specifically what this could mean:

“A significant cut in funding or delay in the project, as it stands, would leave an 80-foot-tall, multibillion dollar building with 110 holes in it, at the mercy of the elements. Beyond this are significant amounts of equipment that need regular maintenance and 400 outstanding contracts, to contractors in 40 states, valued around $500 million to fabricate equipment, which would have to be paid off…However, Trice said he remains confident and believes that the administration supports the project and the funding would be made available. But that he had not seen the FY 14 Budget, due to be announced next week.”

We’ll provide more perspective as the FY 14 Budget surfaces, but be sure to be informed on the important issues, including what crucial security and economic benefits the MOX Project represents, and how budget cuts could endanger America honoring its international agreements.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing this morning on the nomination of Ernest J. Moniz to succeed Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy.

Moniz addressed a range of topics, including his support for nuclear energy, small modular reactors, and a consent-based process for managing used nuclear fuel.

He also engaged in a thorough and substantive exchange with South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who posed a series of important questions related to the MOX Project under construction in his state.

Senator Scott’s focus on the fiscal and international consequences of failure to complete the MOX Project highlight the two choices facing the Congress:

1.) Secure funding to complete the 60% constructed MOX Project, delivering energy security and economic benefits while converting enough plutonium for 17,000 warheads into a form that can never be reusable for weapons or any other military purpose; or

2.) Suspend the MOX Project, diminishing U.S. credibility in future international negotiations and exposing taxpayers to the fiscal ramifications, including substantial costs to continue securing and storing weapons material on-site, payment of $1,000,000 a day in fines from the U.S. government to South Carolina for not meeting original project obligations, and the unknowable cost to pursue alternatives to MOX previously determined in the United States and throughout the world to be either inadequate or unproven.

Details in the video posted to Senator Scott’s site [direct link: http://www.youtube.com/embed/CaRxa1lms44?rel=0]…

Guest post by Samir Pathak, Instrumentation & Control Engineer, AREVA Inc.

I had the pleasure of attending the 16th Annual Einstein Society Gala this past weekend at the National Museum of Nuclear Science in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The gala is held to celebrate Dr. Albert Einstein’s birthday and his contributions to humanity, and bestow the National Award of Nuclear Science and History to honor individuals making remarkable impacts in the nuclear science field. This year’s award was presented to Admiral Kirkland H. Donald, USN, Ret., who served as Director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.

In addition to celebrating such esteemed individuals, the Gala is one of the biggest fundraisers for the National Museum of Nuclear Science. AREVA helped sponsor the museum’s off-base relocation from Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico to southwest Albuquerque, and supports its mission “to serve as America’s resource for nuclear history and science through exhibits and quality educational programs conveying the diversity of individuals and events shaping the historical and technical context of the nuclear age.”

Many of the museum’s focal points are science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—or STEM— activities for students, including week-long science camps in affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution. Each science camp is catered to a specific age-range to teach kids about topics varying from rockets, dinosaur fossils, green initiatives, and even nanotechnology! Also throughout the museum are hands-on exhibits that allow for visitors to explore and interact, and on weekends volunteers from the local high-schools demonstrate various science experiments.

If you’re ever in Albuquerque, I recommend visiting the National Museum of Nuclear Science to see for yourself!

Guest post by Rebecca Jetton, Design Engineer, AREVA Inc.

On March 14th, Tejiri Bolano and I were given the opportunity to represent AREVA Women in Nuclear at the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment (WCEE) Woman of the Year Award Banquet. For more than 30 years, WCEE has provided leadership support, professional development and networking opportunities for Washington-area professionals focusing on women, energy, and the environment. Hundreds of women and men from industries related to energy and the environment attended the banquet at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C.
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With the facility already more than 60% complete, the MOX Project is achieving construction, safety and functional milestones towards fulfilling America’s international nonproliferation goals.

As the first major nuclear-grade construction project in more than 20 years and the first-of-its-kind facility in the U.S., the MOX Project is a national and economic investment in establishing a nuclear-certified national supply chain, developing and fine-tuning new construction processes, and training a highly skilled, 2,200-person workforce from the ground up.

The MOX Project supply chain already reaches coast-to-coast, purchasing materials and equipment from 39 states in businesses employing more than 4,100 Americans—and what a wealth of material and economic benefit it represents. The latest MOX Project factsheet [PDF file] lists the expected final tally as:

• Concrete: 170,000 cubic yards
• Reinforcing Steel: 35,000 tons
• Process Piping: 85 miles
• HVAC duct work: 1,000 tons
• Conduit: 500,000 linear feet
• Cable Tray: 47,000 linear feet
• Power/Control Cable: 3,600,000 linear feet
• Process Systems: 300
• MFFF and Support Facilities Size: 600,000 square feet

Managing any national construction project of this scope would be a challenge in terms of worker safety, material costs, and regulatory compliance. Impressively, the MOX Project construction workers have achieved more than 14.5 million safe work hours without an accident causing a lost workday. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a typical site would have averaged 112 lost workdays. This determined focus on employees’ safety and well-being requires paced, carefully considered fulfillment of daily tasks in a complex construction environment.

Material costs are also closely managed, but when purchasing, transporting, and working with quantities like those listed above, even a moderate increase in costs can significantly impact project expenses. One unfortunate result of the MOX Project’s unique nuclear-grade training and construction experience is the recruitment of these highly skilled workers away from MOX Project to go work on the two new nuclear reactor projects. The ongoing loss of these MOX-trained workers requires constant replenishing, training, and investment in new construction employees. But development continues, and the NRC recently acknowledged appropriate progress was being made in the construction of MOX Project.

In all, the MOX Project is accomplishing the task and challenges of delivering on America’s nonproliferation commitment, and also leading the economic renewal of American nuclear energy supply chains and competencies.

Slade Gorton is a former U.S. Senator, and was also a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (popularly known as the “9/11 Commission.” He is also a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Gorton writes an imported editorial in this week’s Tri-City Herald newspaper, warning of the effects of the current budget battles on key nonproliferation projects ensuring the safety of nuclear material:
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