AREVA executives cut the ribbon on the new Chemistry and Materials Center.

Today in Virginia we at AREVA celebrated the grand opening of a new, $6.5 million Chemistry and Materials Center (CMC). It’s an 8,000 square foot, two-story building at our facility in Campbell County. Here several labs will work and provide key services to help AREVA’s customers with their continuing efforts to fight corrosion damage to plant components and fuel.

For the already operating nuclear power plants, the CMC will dedicate general and specialized chemistry, corrosion, and metallurgical testing and analysis support. It will also aid with the design development and deployment for the US EPR™.

Why is reducing corrosion damage so important? The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) estimated in a study from 2001 that corrosion damage costs the U.S. electric power generating industry $17.3 billion annually or nearly 8% of the cost of electricity to consumers. As much as half of all forced outages at power plants can be traced back to corrosion damage, and this $3.8 billion cost is considered avoidable.

As AREVA NP Inc. CEO Michael Rencheck pointed out, “Our new Chemistry and Materials Center will increase efficiency at current plants helping utilities control costs that are eventually passed on to the consumer.” But the CMC is also great news for Central Virginia. Bryan David, the executive director of Virginia’s Region 2000 Economic Development Council, said that “AREVA, with its growing, high-skilled base of employees, is doing the right things to help our region provide a supportive environment for business and knowledge creation.”

The concrete foundation is completed at the MOX facility. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

by Jarret Adams

With the second anniversary of construction work at MOX project in South Carolina, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) issued a press release announcing that it has launched some new media tools for keeping people up to speed on the project. The MOX project also has a new website.

The MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility will play an essential role in the nation’s nonproliferation efforts by converting surplus weapons-grade material into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. In effect, the MOX project will permanently eliminate this material while providing a reliable source of fuel to produce CO2-free electricity for Americans.

“The progress made on the construction of the facility over the past two years brings us one step closer to eliminating surplus plutonium in a transparent and irreversible manner,” NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino said in a press release.

It’s also great to see NNSA using new social media; click here to follow NNSA news on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

As a reminder, you can also follow AREVA Inc. on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.