We want to recognize the winners of the paper competition from this year’s American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Pressure Vessels and Piping conference. Held in Prague this year, it’s an annual conference attended by some 700 technical experts from all over the world who meet to talk about PVP technology, codes, and standards for the power and process industries.

The awards were given on Wednesday to six graduate and undergraduate engineering and physical science students. Both categories of competition, PhD and MS/BS, turned in some excellent work, and the awards for the six ranged from $500 for the 2nd runner-up to $1,000 for each finalist. As one of the main conference sponsors, AREVA supported the technical paper competition which asked for student written papers on relevant topic areas including: codes & standards, high-pressure technology, design & analysis, materials &fabrication, seismic engineering.

Congrats to all participants and this year’s winners!

For more details, check out Nuclear Street.

We want from time to time to focus on some of our different social network outreach efforts… Today we’d thank our Facebook users who have become fans of our Facebook fan page…

If you are a Facebook user, please do consider becoming a fan… we’re planning to expand and build out our presence there in big ways. We really appreciate the growing community of AREVA alums, stakeholders and friends that we’re growing there.

Here’s a video from Jarret Adams’ recent visit to the Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) construction site in Finland. This is where AREVA is building its EPR™ reactor- it’s a pressurized water reactor that will produce approximately 1,600 megawatts of electricity per year. Right now AREVA is the only company in the world with a Generation III+ reactor under construction.

As you can see in the footage, construction is moving right along for this first-of-a-kind project with nearly 3,500 people working to complete the OL3 EPR™.

by Mary Beth Ginder, AthlePartner, Bethesda

Track and field is a universal sport, enjoying popularity around the world. Its participants and enthusiasts include the amateur runner hitting the treadmill to the gold-medal-winning Olympic athlete. The sport stresses individual performance, teamwork, endurance, speed and determination. AREVA, in my humble opinion, has very similar qualities – teamwork, achievement, energy – and therefore, it makes sense that AREVA has chosen to partner with the French Athletics Federation (FFA) and the French National Athletics League (LNA) to sponsor international track and field events.

This past weekend I attended the Meeting AREVA, a high-level sporting event that brought together runners, pole-vaulters, javelin throwers, and long and high jumpers from around the globe. The stadium and 50,000 attendees were decked out in green, black and gold in a Jamaican theme to celebrate Usain “Lightning” Bolt – triple gold-medalist at the 2008 Peking Olympic Games and holder of three world records. The feeling around the stadium was electric as Bolt ran (and smoked everyone) in the 100 meter dash, setting a new Meeting record of 9.79 seconds.

The author at Meeting AREVA. Click thumbnail to enlarge.

Meeting AREVA also brought together AREVA employees from around the world as “AthlePartners” to help foster excitement about AREVA’s track and field partnership in their respective home offices. This included training and information sessions, with presentations by AREVA Spokesperson Jacques-Emmanuel Saulnier and former French track star Jean Galfione. It was a wonderful experience to meet and work with people from AREVA Korea, Germany, France, the UK, and Canada. From this experience I can truly attest that AREVA is a great company because of its people!

Over the next four years AREVA will be a major sponsor of track and field events in France and, through AthlePartners like me, will get involved in local communities. Through our campaign “Energize the Athlete in You,” our U.S. offices will get involved in local track and field and other running competitions, including hosting a walk/run raising money to end illiteracy.

Be on the look out for information on getting involved locally in AREVA sponsored events! Although we might not have a Bolt competing at every event, we could find the next big star!

If you’re interested in learning more about AREVA’s partnership with track and field, please visit our website.

By Katherine Berezowskyj

Yesterday the United States actually saw a clear step in the nuclear energy renaissance as AREVA and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding put shovels in the ground. The two leaders in the nuclear industry broke ground on what will be a 330,000 square-foot heavy components manufacturing facility in Newport News, Va.

AREVA Newport News LLC is the joint venture that the two companies formed last October to build this facility that will manufacture the heavy components for nuclear power plants. It’s the first heavy component manufacturing facility built in the U.S. in 35 years. These heavy components will be the “guts” of future AREVA U.S. EPR™ reactors as well as other EPR™ projects linking the supply chain all over the world.

“This is a significant and concrete step in the revival of the U.S. nuclear energy sector,” said Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of AREVA. “The path of certainty for the deployment of the EPR reactor in the United States goes through Viriginia.”

The project represent a commitment to the state as well as the industry. It will bring an investment of more than $360 million and 500 skilled jobs to Virginia—one that will provide green energy jobs and keep the regional economy strong.

The mayor of Newport News, Joe Frank, and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine were there to celebrate this great occasion for industry and energy in the region. Governor Kaine said, “AREVA Newport News and Virginia have launched a powerful partnership built on our shared goals of promoting green energy and energy efficiency.”

When AREVA Newport News comes online—expected in 2012—it will produce the critical EPR™ heavy components, including reactor vessels, steam generators, and pressurizers. As the AREVA EPR™ is the only Generation III+ reactor currently under construction today, the components represent a critical supply for meeting future, growing, and clean energy needs-particularly in the U.S.

To watch the webcast of yesterday’s groundbreaking, click here

Stay tuned for live coverage as AREVA and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding will break out the shovels for the construction of 330,000-square-foot manufacturing and engineering facility.

This evening at 6:00 pm EDT, the two leaders in the U.S. nuclear industry will be breaking ground on a new manufacturing and engineering facility in Newport News, Virginia. The joint venture, AREVA Newport News LLC, will build the heaving components for new nuclear plants, a $360 million investment that will create more than 500 jobs.

Noted appearances will include: Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine, AREVA CEO Anne Lauvergeon, Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding President Mike Petters, AREVA Newport News General Manager Chris Levesque, and Newport News Mayor Joe Frank.

UPDATE:

Watch it live on the streaming webcast

The live webcast is now archived for viewing on demand here.

AREVA and its U.S. consortium partner Bechtel Power Corporation have signed a term sheet with UniStar Nuclear Energy outlining the terms and conditions for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for UniStar’s proposed Calvert Cliffs 3 nuclear energy facility project in Maryland. The EPC term sheet agreement is a critical step in negotiating an overall EPC contract.

The EPC contract for Calvert Cliffs 3 is planned to be the first in a series of standardized EPC contracts for a fleet of U.S. EPR™ facilities that will be licensed, developed and constructed as part of the UniStar Nuclear Energy business model.

The proposed U.S. EPR™ project at Calvert Cliffs 3 will provide a boost to the local economy. U.S. EPR™ facilities are estimated to generate as many as 4,000 skilled crafts jobs during construction.

In addition to the craft jobs during construction, the facility will generate approximately 400 permanent positions once the facility begins commercial operation. Many more indirect jobs and new business growth will be generated in nearby communities.

On Thursday, the Tennessee Valley Authority signed a letter of intent agreeing to evaluate using mixed-oxide (MOX) recycled fuel in two or more of their nuclear reactors. This is a positive step for Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC, which is currently constructing the MOX Fuel fabrication Facility in South Carolina. When operational, it will recycle excess weapons-grade plutonium into MOX fuel for nuclear power plants, providing clean, carbon-free nuclear energy–contributing to the reduction in nuclear weapons stockpiles worldwide.

Construction of the facility has been going successfully since it started in 2007. Already 263,000 square feet of office space has been completed, with 78,000 currently under construction, not to mention over one million safe work hours already logged. The facility should open in 2016, and when it’s up and running it will be turning 3.5 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium into MOX fuel each year, which we hope to supply to many customers–including TVA. We’re proud to be working with the Shaw Group on this important endeavor for nuclear energy and nonproliferation in support of U.S. energy and security needs.

A link to AREVA’s press release can be found here.

To check out more information on the project, go to the MOX Project website.

A recent Toronto Star article presented some misleading figures about cost competitiveness of nuclear energy, in regards to the bid in progress for two new reactors. This also made it to the Climate Progress Blog—so we figured that we should “clear the air,” because this is something the nuclear energy industry is already very good at.

Now what is true about nuclear energy is that it’s a growing as a source for clean, viable, and economic energy all over the world. Look at the cases of India and China, two booming countries for which access to energy is not a question of prestige, but a matter of social stability and sustainable development. Do you think these countries would have chosen nuclear energy if it weren’t a cost-effective solution? Major European states, such as the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Sweden, are taking progressive steps or are already launching new nuclear energy programs. In the U.S., there are already approximately 30 new nuclear power plants proposed. It’s unlikely that these utilities’ consideration of building new nuclear power plants was guided by philanthropic concerns.

Facts are stubborn things. Nuclear energy produces electricity at a competitive and predictable price—especially if we add in carbon pricing. Once construction costs are amortized, the operating costs of a nuclear facility are among the lowest of any generating source. This includes the fact that nuclear energy is the only major source of electricity that incorporates the cost of managing its own waste materials, unlike fossil-fuel plants that just allow their smoke and other byproducts to escape into the air.

Congressman Mike Simpson spoke on the U.S. House floor today during debate of the energy and water appropriation bill:

The Loan Guarantee Program is one of the few policy tools we have that delivers immediately available, market-ready, innovative clean energy technologies that will have a positive impact on our economy. Congress has authorized $2 billion in loan guarantee authority for front-end nuclear facilities. D.O.E. should be recognized for their work creating a Loan Guarantee Program that has sound criteria to ensure the protection of taxpayers and award guarantees to the most creditworthy projects.

A little bit about the loan guarantee program: The Department of Energy’s Loan Guarantee Program is designed to facilitate financing for sound investments in innovative, new clean energy facilities, like nuclear power plants and enrichment facilities. However, it’s not a government grant or a “giveaway.” Applicants must demonstrate a solid business plan with technology to reduce CO2 emissions. Another important consideration, according to DOE, is the ability to show “reasonable prospect of repayment” of the loan.

In the current credit environment, capital is less readily available for large scale projects that have the potential to create thousands of new jobs. Investments in base-load energy sources like nuclear power promote American energy security by making the nation less reliant on foreign imports and will help America meet its energy needs with CO2-free sources.

To learn more about the Loan Guarantee Program, check out this page on the DOE’s website.