by Jacques Besnainou, President of AREVA Inc.

Jacques Besnainou

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to AREVA’s blog for North America. We hope this blog will offer a forum on energy issues and our activities in North America. We also hope to foster discussions about energy issues and foster discussions about combating climate change, increasing energy security, and improving economic growth. It will also focus on AREVA’s solutions for clean power generation and electricity distribution in North America.

Though we are joining a diverse and exciting energy blog community, AREVA is the first nuclear energy company, and one the first energy companies of any kind to maintain a blog. This is very much in keeping with our policy of openness with our stakeholders, a policy spearheaded by our CEO Anne Lauvergeon and supported by the rest of the AREVA team.

Many of you reading this are already quite familiar with AREVA, but for those who are not, here is a brief overview: AREVA has about 7,000 employees across North America engaged in a wide range of activities. AREVA is the largest supplier in the nuclear energy sector in the region and worldwide. It also is the only company present in every part of the nuclear fuel cycle.

At our sites in Lynchburg, Va., Charlotte, N.C., and other U.S. locations, we are doing the detailed design of the U.S. EPR™ reactor—several companies have selected this technology and have submitted license applications to build these new-generation power stations. The company also is a leader in providing upgrades and services to existing nuclear plants.

In addition, we are making many investments to help revive the energy infrastructure in the United States. AREVA is developing a multibillion-dollar uranium enrichment facility in Idaho. We have partnered with Northrop Grumman to build a component manufacturing facility in Virginia.

We have also proposed the EPR™ technology in Canada and are hopeful we will be selected. Today we have nearly 1,000 employees in Canada in our various business units and operate several uranium mines in Saskatchewan.

AREVA also is a leader in electricity transmission and distribution with facilities across the U.S. and Canada developing the next-generation of smart grid technology. We are working to make electricity transmission more efficient and to reduce its environmental impact.

Last, but certainly not least, AREVA has a rapidly growing renewables sector. Our ADAGE joint venture with Duke Energy is working to develop wood biopower plants for U.S. customers. AREVA also is exploring potential for its offshore wind turbines.

Again, we are excited about our activities in North America and look forward to hearing from you.