From left: Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy; Jean-Pierre Benque, President of EDF North America; Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of AREVA; Ted Strickland, Governor of Ohio; and Randy Runyon, SODI Director

by Katherine Berezowskyj

It couldn’t have been said better: “Investing in new nuclear power plants, which produce electricity 24 hours a day and seven days a week, can be a major growth engine for our economy,” while also being an energy source that is “tailor-made for addressing climate change.” This came from Jim Rogers, the CEO and President of Duke Energy, in an editorial yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. Rogers spoke about how the United States is not leading the charge in developing green energy technology, but he made the point “we are still the world’s largest operator of commercial nuclear power. We have 104 licensed commercial nuclear reactors—generating about 20% of our electricity and more than 70% of all carbon-free electricity.”

Of these 104 nuclear reactors, Duke Energy has seven, and they are planning to build three more. One of these three includes a reactor proposed as part of the recent announcement of the first U.S. Clean Energy Park Project for Ohio. The park is an alliance between key players—Duke Energy, AREVA, Unistar Nuclear Energy, USEC Inc., and Sothern Ohio Diversification Initiative—in which they will look at the Department of Energy site in Portsmouth, Ohio as a potential location for a new nuclear power plant. As part of the development, the project will focus on the deployment of Generation III + reactors on the site, which will include an evaluation of AREVA’s US EPR™ technology.

The construction and operation a new nuclear power plant, like the one under consideration for the Clean Energy Park in Ohio, creates thousands of jobs during construction and hundreds during operation. This is exactly what Rogers points out, “Our private-sector expertise and interest in new nuclear plants is causing regional energy hubs to sprout up, creating thousands of well-paying jobs.” One of these hubs is Charlotte, N.C., where Duke Energy has its headquarters. You will also find 600 AREVA employees here, and during this next year, our numbers will be growing throughout the United States as we are hiring another 600 people. And the economic benefit of nuclear energy does not stop there, as he refers to how “each year the average nuclear plant generates approximately $430 million in sales of goods and services in the local community and nearly $40 million in total labor income.”

While nuclear energy is the most reliable form of CO2-free energy, Rogers concludes that “We must also invest in and expand our use of wind, solar, and other new renewable energy technologies,” which includes a key partnership in renewable energy between Duke Energy and AREVA. This joint venture, ADAGE, is currently working to develop 50 megawatt biopower plants that will use clean wood waste as fuel to produce electricity. They recently announced the first proposed site for their biomass plant in Hamilton County, Florida.

Be sure to check out of the rest of Jim Rogers’s editorial “Why Nuclear Power is Part of Our Future” here.

By Laura Clise

On June 3, the U.S. State Department Global Partnerships Initiative, the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator and TED hosted TED@State, New Ideas for a Better world. TED is a non-profit organization dedicated to the spread of attitude-changing, life-changing, and world-changing ideas. TED@State brought together a diverse and dynamic group of speakers, but better than any notes I could provide, you can check out the actual footage from each speaker’s presentation on the TED website (available soon) and or and read a summary of the presented material on the TED Blog.

While the event was personally of interest to me (I have a passion for international development and my best friend from business school is currently working as an Acumen Fellow for TED@State speaker, Jacqueline Novogratz), my professional reason for attending TED@State was directly linked to the ongoing global dialogue regarding development, energy, and climate change.

Social media analyst Clay Shirky talked about the impact of the shifting media landscape, something with which AREVA is already familiar through the AREVA Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin pages. Futurist and environmentalist Stewart Brand discussed the implications of increased urbanization and also the critical role that base-load nuclear energy must contribute to our low-carbon energy future. Acumen Fund CEO Jacqueline Novogratz talked about facilitating bottom up entrepreneurial solutions to poverty alleviation and noted that effective solutions start from the perspective of those her organization is trying to help. This mentality is akin to the way we develop the products and services that we offer. Economist Paul Collier talked about the importance of sustainable job creation, health, and clean government in post-conflict recovery. AREVA also believes that job creation is critical to economic vitality and will be hiring more than 700 people in North America this year. Finally, data visionary Hans Rosling provided a statistical argument for global convergence and talked as well about the importance of information and data transparency. AREVA has been committed to open communication and transparency since its inception in order to lift the veil of secrecy that used to shroud the nuclear energy industry.

The TED@State speakers articulated the complex geopolitical, social, cultural, and environmental contexts in which companies like AREVA are innovating solutions that meet the energy needs of development while at the same time taking into account implications for social and environmental impact.

Yesterday, President Obama said in a BBC interview: “Without going into specifics, what I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations. On the other hand, the international community has a very real interest in preventing a nuclear arms race in the region.”

Thus, we thought that this would be a good time to highlight AREVA’s commitment to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and our being a partner in the US Department of Energy’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative. As it says on the DOE’s site:

The mission of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) is to reduce and protect vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials located at civilian sites worldwide. GTRI helps the Department of Energy achieve its Nuclear Security Goal to prevent the acquisition of nuclear and radiological materials…Three key subprograms of GTRI –Convert, Remove, and Protect—provide a comprehensive approach to denying terrorists access to nuclear and radiological materials.

As part of this commitment to remove weapons-grade material from stockpiles, AREVA has partnered with the Shaw Group to build the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. This facility when complete with convert the weapons-grade plutonium into MOX fuel for use in commercial nuclear power plants. This $4.9 billion project now under construction employs some 1,000 workers and is being built for DOE.

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander has called for the construction of 100 more nuclear reactors over the next 20 years:

“It is an aggressive goal, but with presidential leadership it could happen,” the third-ranking Senate Republican told an economic and technology conference at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge.

“I am convinced it should happen because conservation and nuclear power are the only real alternatives we have today to produce enough low-cost, reliable, clean energy to clean the air, deal with climate change and keep good jobs from going overseas.”

Alexander said he would deliver that message this week speaking on the floor of the Senate, where he said all 40 Republicans and many Democrats support nuclear energy. He said he hopes President Barack Obama’s administration would embrace his call under efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

…and former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman says it can be done:

Does that sound like a realistic goal? Former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman thinks so. 

“The industry has done that. It built four to five reactors a year in the ’60s and ’70s,” said Whitman during an interview with Greentech Media this morning. Whitman now co-chairs of a nuclear power advocacy group CASEnergy Coalition in Washington, D.C.

“People shouldn’t base their information on nuclear on Bart Simpson. That’s just not reality,” aid Whitman, referring to the popular cartoon character, whose father works as a safety inspector at a nuclear power plant.

Whitman said nuclear power could replace coal as the main source of electricity.

On a blog hosted by the Augusta Chronicle, reporter Rob Pavey provides a good summary of the situation at the MOX facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Shaw AREVA MOX Services is building the facility which will convert nuclear weapons material into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for U.S. nuclear power plants. The reporter effectively describes why there have been some misunderstandings in the media regarding reports issued on the MOX Project. He writes:

The mixed oxide, or “MOX” facility, emerged in the crosshairs of an audit unveiled last week by DOE’s Inspector General, whose critical findings included the purchase of 9,500 tons of substandard rebar for the $4.8 billion project.

However, he notes that this issue was not new and already had been resolved:

Last December, just a couple weeks before Christmas, a different federal agency—the Nuclear Regulatory Commission—filled a conference room in Aiken with scientists and government officials to talk about essentially the same thing.

The commission’s inspectors spent more than 4,300 staff hours over a two-year period evaluating all aspects of the MOX project, including quality control programs, construction activities and recordkeeping, said Deborah Seymour, chief of the NRC’s Construction Projects Inspection Branch.

“There were no specific areas that needed improvement,” she said at the time, noting that the only “minor violations” were detected.

The NRC’s clean bill of health for the project was made with full knowledge of the faulty rebar issue, which had also been explored in a Dec. 10 report issued by the House Energy and Water Subcommittee.

To read more: Who’s keeping an eye on Savannah River Site? Apparently, everyone.

It bears mentioning once again that Shaw AREVA MOX Services is committed to building a safe, well-constructed facility that protects its workers, the public and the environment. Our work on the construction of the MOX Facility has always met the most stringent safety and quality standards and that will never change.

AREVA MOX Facility Under Construction - Aiken, South Carolina

by Jarret Adams

The MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina serves several important goals: It provides a way to remove weapons-grade material from the nation’s military stockpiles. At the same time, the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel produced by the facility will help generate reliable, emission-free electricity for Americans.

The construction project led by Shaw AREVA MOX Services (MOX Services) has been making excellent progress over the past year and the facility is beginning to take shape. The facility is expected to begin delivering MOX fuel in 2017, and the project is on track to do just that.

However, some antinuclear groups have been spreading misinformation about the MOX Project. Conversion of weapons-grade material into MOX fuel is one of the best methods for making this material unusable for military purposes. Based on President Obama’s desire to reduce our stockpiles of this material, demand for facilities such as the MOX Project, are set to increase not decrease.

It is illogical to oppose nuclear weapons and also oppose programs, such as the MOX facility, that help dispose of nuclear weapons.

Simply put, converting weapons-grade material into fuel to generate electricity makes the nation safer. (In a similar initiative, converted Russian weapons material has been quietly supplying half of our nation’s nuclear plant fuel for years and is making the world a safer place.)

Despite what opponents of the MOX Project would like to believe, the project continues to have support of the U.S. government and the industry. MOX Services is still in negotiations with several utilities, including Duke Energy, and is confident it will have customers for the plant output well before 2017.

Opponents of the project also have characterized the experience with the lead test assemblies (LTAs) as a “failure.” Also untrue. The LTAs performed well during the first two cycles in the reactors. After the second cycle, inspectors noticed that they grew slightly more than what had been established in pre-set criteria. At no time did the MOX assemblies present a safety hazard.

The adjustments to future MOX fuel assemblies will be a minor one, according AREVA fuel experts, and can be demonstrated on uranium fuel. Our experts also believe that no repeat of the MOX LTA tests will be required.

As we have mentioned previously, AREVA has decades of experience in the production of MOX fuel at its MELOX facility in France. AREVA has many satisfied MOX fuel customers and is even winning new ones.

AREVA has launched a new U.S. Web site focused on its products and services in the United States that reinforces the company’s leadership position in providing CO2-free energy technology.

AREVA North America President Jacques Besnainou said, “This new Web site offers something for everyone, from bloggers and journalists to government officials, job seekers, and the general public. AREVA’s online presence reinforces not only our policy of transparency, but also our U.S. position as a CO2-free energy technology leader and thinker.”

The new Web site includes the following features to provide visitors with easy-to-find information about AREVA’s strong U.S. presence and activities:

*Detailed information on AREVA’s CO2-free energy technology expertise, including a section on our renewable energy offering
*A career section covering AREVA’s U.S. and international jobs, as well as on-campus recruitment fairs
The latest group and U.S. news, as well as upcoming events
*Focus reports on key projects, including U.S. EPR™ reactor technology, the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility, and AREVA Newport News, LLC, among others.

AREVA’s new Web site can be found at www.us.areva.com.

Mox Fuel Fabrication Facility Under Construction

By Jarret Adams

The MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina recently passed the milestone of 2 million work hours completed without a lost time incident. This facility is an important project because it will take weapons-grade material in our nation’s stockpiles and convert into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. Shaw AREVA MOX Services is justifiably proud to be part of this important project.

As a result, the MOX facility serves two important goals: it disposes of excess nuclear weapons material and provides nuclear plant fuel to generate electricity for Americans.

When you think about it, if the goal is to eliminate nuclear weapons from the nation’s stockpiles as President Obama stated in Prague over the weekend, a facility such as the MOX project is one of the best solutions available today.

The MOX project continues to have strong government and industry support. MOX Services received last May the option to construct the $4.86 billion facility.

AREVA has safely produced MOX fuel at its facilities in France for approximately 35 years. MOX fuel also is used by utilities in many other countries, including Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Japan. Just last week, AREVA announced a major contract to supply MOX fuel to a Japanese utility.

AREVA Newport News

by Jarret Adams

AREVA has unveiled plans to further increase its production capacity at its Chalon/Saint-Marcel manufacturing facility in eastern France, to keep pace with its strong international growth.

During the coming years, the group will invest €35 million ($47 million) in the plant, which will enable it to produce the heavy components for the equivalent of 2.7 EPR™ reactors per year, from its current capacity of around 1.7 EPR reactors.

The Chalon/Saint Marcel plant is the model on which AREVA Newport News, an AREVA and Northrop Grumman joint venture, will be based. The construction of the 300,000-square-foot facility will begin this summer with completion anticipated in early 2012. The facility represents a $360 million investment and will create about 500 new jobs.

AREVA’s investments in Chalon/Saint Marcel and AREVA Newport News is powerful evidence of the reality of the nuclear power resurgence and the company’s commitment to it.

By Jarret Adams

Today’s announcement of a memorandum of understanding for 80 offshore wind turbines for AREVA’s subsidiary Multibrid signals a major step forward for our renewable business.  Apart from the fact that this will be a contract worth over $900 million for AREVA, it reinforces our position as a major player in the renewables sector.

These wind turbines will be located off the North Sea coast of Germany, but AREVA is looking for opportunities for new business at various locations in North America. Our company remains one of a handful capable of producing the 5 MW offshore wind turbines.

AREVA also is involved in other renewable sectors, such as biopower (biomass to electricity). We have constructed 100 biomass facilities around the world and are now looking to build more in the United States.

Last September, AREVA and Duke Energy formed ADAGE, a joint venture focused on providing biopower solutions to U.S. electricity customers. Since its formation, ADAGE has moved forward with the goal of building 10-12 facilities over the next six years. In February, ADAGE announced a preliminary agreement with Energy Northwest to market 50 MW biopower facilities in Pacific Northwest.

Developing solutions for power generations with a small environmental impact from renewables, such as wind and biomass, along with clean nuclear energy is a main focus of our business.