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.
read more…

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.”
read more…

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]…

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:
read more…

Guest post by Heiner Dornburg, Business Manager Sales and Marketing Electrical Systems and I&C, AREVA Inc.

Representatives from more than 40% of U.S. nuclear energy sites recently attended a successful AREVA demonstration of the VEGAPULS 62 Extended Range, Through-Air Radar for Spent Fuel Pool Level Monitoring.

Saturated steam, dense smoke, boiling water, and floating debris were shown to have no significant effect on the radar’s measurement accuracy, even at the extended range of 212 feet from the pool’s surface. Watch the video demonstrations.

As one of the participants stated, “This product demonstration thoroughly validated that the Through-Air Radar is a solid technology for SFP Level measurement in response to Fukushima. The demo illustrated how well the products work under postulated event conditions. In addition, the new waveguide length allows the sensor electronics to be located up to 212 feet away from the spent fuel pool and in an accessible mild environment, which should make it a fit for any site’s application.”

Design features of the VEGAPULS 62 system include the longer waveguide, which is facilitated by a different radar frequency and higher sensitivity electronics, and fully off-the-shelf materials. The new smaller one-inch diameter waveguide pipe with self-centering flanges is also easy to install.
read more…

Good news today from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Shaw AREVA MOX Services on construction milestones achieved at the MOX Project in South Carolina, including 14 million consecutive safe work hours by the more than 2,200 workers employed to construct America’s first nuclear facility in decades. As the AP reports:
 

 

 

Federal regulators have given good marks to construction progress at a South Carolina plant to turn weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear reactor fuel.

Appropriate progress is being made at the mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a letter sent last month to the company contracted to design, build and operate the plant for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

It was the third year in a row the project has gotten a good report from the regulatory agency, which evaluated activity from October 2011 through the end of last year. In a release heralding the report, Shaw AREVA MOX Services also noted that the more than 2,000 people working on the project have logged more than 14 million consecutive work hours without a lost workday due to injury.

The plant, which broke ground in 2007 and is expected to be completed in 2016, will blend weapons-grade plutonium to create commercial nuclear reactor fuel and would be the first of its kind in the United States. The mammoth concrete and steel structure is being built at a former nuclear bomb plant, where reactors have been shut down for more than a decade.

Read more here.

Guest post by James Yu, Director of International and Federal Affairs, AREVA Inc.

Last week, Kelly Trice, President and Chief Operating Officer of Shaw AREVA MOX Services, presented the following video during the Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Arlington, VA.

The conversation underscored the importance of the national nuclear security mission of the MOX Project, through which the United States will fulfill its international commitment to dispose of at least 34 metric tons of nuclear weapons material initiated under the U.S.-Russia Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement of 2000. In turn, Russia is obligated to permanently dispose of at least 34 metric tons of its weapons plutonium.
read more…

As U.S. government sequester statements and financial figures swirl in dire predictions, what seems to be lost is the real-time impact on American workers, like the more than 2,200 construction employees fulfilling America’s nonproliferation commitment at the MOX Project in South Carolina.

This highly trained and uniquely skilled workforce recently surpassed 14 million consecutive safe work hours without a single lost workday due to injury. To put this amazing achievement in perspective: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a typical construction site in the United States experiences one lost workday for every 125,000 hours worked. In the span of 14 million hours worked, a typical site would have averaged 112 lost workdays.
read more…