As the Obama Administration looks to help jumpstart job creation across the United States, it should look no farther than the nuclear energy sector. Nuclear energy already plays an important role in the U.S. economy, producing 20 percent of the nation’s electricity and employing some 120,000 hardworking Americans. Yet investment in new nuclear facilities will create many additional jobs during both the construction and operation phases.
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While many countries are still developing strategies for increasing their low-carbon electricity generation, France is moving forward with a significant new nuclear project that will help the nation maintain its status as having one of the lowest emissions per capita of any industrialized nation.
The Flamanville 3 nuclear power plant, under construction in the Normandy region of France, is part of the solution for meeting the nation’s growing demand for low-carbon energy. This reactor is AREVA’s EPR™ design and is the second in this series of advanced design.

EDF, the plant’s operator, announced a schedule revision today, as well as a new approach to organization. The modification of the timeline also includes “comprehensive analyses carried out as part of the post-Fukushima safety assessment audits (that) will be submitted to the Nuclear Safety Authority in September,” according to an EDF statement.

AREVA is working closely with EDF to optimize the EPR™ reactor based on feedback provided by the first construction projects. We are already applying this experience to improve the two EPR™ reactor construction projects in China.

“The success of the Flamanville EPR is a major challenge for the industrial expertise of the nuclear industry. We will continue to work together on the feedback from the first EPR sites in order to learn from it for the benefit of future construction projects around the world,” said Hervé Machenaud EDF’s Group Senior Executive in charge of Production and Engineering and Claude Jaouen, Senior Executive Vice President of AREVA’s Reactors and Services Business Group.

For more information on the Flamanville 3 project and AREVA’s scope, click here.
While other countries ponder their low-carbon energy dilemmas, you can take a closer look at the construction of an EPR™ reactor and see what is to come at Flamanville 3. Check out the video here of the Olkiluoto 3 EPR™ reactor construction project in Finland where AREVA has already installed the four steam generators.

Dr. Finis Southworth, CTO of AREVA Inc., is featured in SmartPlanet’s post on America’s Nuclear Future. The article covers many key topics about the future of US nuclear power; here are some excerpts:

SmartPlanet begins by discussing with Southworth the relatively close future, already informed by the issues at Fukushima:

There are a total of 104 nuclear plants in the U.S today, according to NRC data. 61 were recently given another 20 years to operation, and most of the remaining plants should be relicensed with NRC reviews and upgrades, nuclear reactor designer AREVA’s CTO Dr. Finis Southworth said…

The U.S. nuclear industry is steadfast in its position that nuclear power is safe today, and that it will become even safer in the future, also helping to address climate change. AREVA’s Southworth told SmartPlanet that NRC safety procedures could have prevented a Fukushima Daiichi like meltdown in the U.S.

…“The NRC will make sure that the industry in the U.S. learns from every lesson available over past 30 years,” Southworth said.

And then Southworth describes some of the latest features in Gen III nuclear technologies:

Southworth noted that Areva’s newest design, the EPR, or Evolutionary Power Reactor, has more redundant systems than the Fukushima Daiichi facilities had. It meets stringent 1990’s European safety standards, and the company spent 15 years on its design, he said….

“Every vendor including us has been on generation 3+ [reactor designs] since 1990-2005, arriving at a design much more advanced in safety,” Southworth said. The generation III designs incorporate evolutionary upgrades over previous designs, and has new passive safety features….

The article closes offering a glimpse at the next generation of nuclear solutions:

Designs for forth generation reactor designs that will not require active cooling systems to be safe will not be available under the 2030’s, and will take a few more years to build after plans are ready, according to Southworth….

Areva is instead preparing a derivative 4th generation design based on a project called the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP). Its NGNP implementation will be know as the HTR reactor. HTR design introduces a new fuel rod technology that unlike pebble fuel, “doesn’t move around,” Southworth said.

More information on the AREVA products Dr. Southworth mentioned can be found here, and here …

By Jarret Adams

Check out this great new video from the Southern Company on the progress it is making to build a new nuclear plant in Georgia. Perhaps most interesting to note is that there are already some 1,300 workers on site only a little over six months after the project received a federal loan guarantee.

Loan guarantees are not direct subsidies but do enable deserving projects to secure financing so that we can begin investing in new clean energy infrastructure. And as this Southern Co. video attests, these new jobs and investment these projects bring do not take years to arrive.
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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.

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

One opinion poll after another shows public support for new nuclear plants is at an all time high. Even the USA Today has recognized that nuclear energy is beginning to make a comeback in the U.S. Americans understand that if we are serious about tackling global warming and breaking our addiction to foreign fuel we must have new nuclear.

There are critics of nuclear power that suggest that conservation, with a mix of solar and wind power, will be enough.  Conservation is important and we have made great strides in efficiency but these measures can only get us so far. The Department of Energy expects energy demand to grow by 25 percent by 2030.  Can wind and solar power really provide the energy we need to meet that demand?  The simple answer is they can’t.  We support wind and solar and we want to see more in the United States, but they are not enough.

At AREVA, we are working to ensure the country has the new nuclear plants it needs.  In light of growing energy demand, the U.S. must have 35 new nuclear plants to maintain nuclear energy’s current 20 percent share of generation. As the leading nuclear energy company both in the U.S. and abroad, we plan on providing one-third of those plants. 

Several companies have already decided to use our EPR™ technology for new plants.  We are constructing four EPR reactors overseas and we are pushing ahead to obtain design certification for the U.S. EPR technology from the nuclear Regulatory Commission.  We have invested $200 million in the task and assembled a team of more than 500 engineers and technicians to see it through.  And our investment in the supporting infrastructure will give the reactor more than 80% U.S. content.

Each new nuclear plant will provide thousands of construction, maintenance and operations jobs on site and many more in the numerous support industries. New nuclear power plants provide clean-baseload energy as well as the jobs the country desperately needs.  We hired 600 employees in 2008 and we plan to match that number this year as we prepare to build new plants. This summer, we plan on breaking ground on AREVA Newport News, our $400 million engineering and manufacturing facility in Newport News, Va., which will supply heavy components to the U.S. nuclear energy sector. And, last year we announced the location of our mult-billion nuclear fuel enrichment facility in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Our support for new nuclear power is unwavering.

The nuclear energy industry is not unique in its ability to apply for loan guarantees. The federal government has decades of experience administering loan guarantees and other financial support for critical infrastructure projects. These projects span a broad array of industries from energy to shipbuilding to transportation to affordable housing. In fact, the $20.5 billion allocated for new nuclear energy facilities is less than 2 percent of the government managed loan guarantee portfolio, which exceeds $1 trillion. (This includes $18.5 billion for new nuclear power plants and $2 billion for fuel cycle facilities, such as enrichment plants.)

Loan guarantees do not represent a subsidy, let alone free money to the nuclear industry as some claim. The loan guarantee program is self-financing, requiring the companies that seek the guarantees to pay all costs to the government for providing them. A well managed loan guarantee program will cost tax payers nothing and yet provide them with the benefits of affordable, emission-free electricity and reduce our reliance on imported sources of energy.

The loan guarantee program was created under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. It was created in direct response to the monumental energy challenges we face, in order to spur investment in “innovative technologies” that “avoid, reduce or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases.” The U.S. EPR™ reactors under consideration here in the United States would do just that, and we are gaining experience from the EPR reactors already under construction internationally. 

The interest in the U.S. government program has been tremendous, with DOE announcing applications for guarantees for 21 new reactors totaling $122 billion, more than six times the allotted amount.

Nuclear facilities are capital intensive projects, often requiring investments equaling half the market cap of the companies that seek to build them. Although nuclear power plants require more of an investment upfront, they have proven wise long-term investments because of low operating and maintenance costs. They also provide predictable revenue streams, not to mention clean and reliable baseload generation for electricity customers. Loan guarantees are essential to offset the disparity in scale between project size and company size. Such assurances also mitigate risks of charting the waters of licensing and regulatory processes which have been effectively revised but still could give pause to the investment community.

President Obama has expressed a clear goal to lift our country out of the current economic crisis and strengthen our position as leaders in the 21st century by way of a clean, green and more energy independent economy. The loan guarantees for nuclear energy reinforce this vision by encouraging investment in domestically produced energy, capable of helping the country tackle our ambitious climate goals and employ thousands of well-trained, well-paid Americans.

The following oped appeared in the March 5 edition of the National Post under the title The Nuclear Option

by Armand Laferrère, president and CEO of AREVA Canada Inc.

Clean energy and new technologies to produce environmentally-friendly products will play a major part in Ontario’s economic renewal program. Given its ability to produce reliable, emission-free, base load electricity, Ontario’s nuclear industry can and should play a central role in the creation of a stronger and more sustainable provincial economy.

Ontario has a running start in becoming a worldwide centre of excellence for nuclear energy. Almost 90% of Canada’s nuclear reactors are located here, producing half of the province’s electricity. We’ve been generating nuclear power for almost 50 years, so we have a deep pool of skilled nuclear scientists, engineers and operators, and a world-leading safety record.

Building new nuclear generation and infrastructure creates thousands of high-paying, long-term jobs for contractors and subcontractors in several industries. Given the long lead time, new reactors aren’t exactly in the “shovel-ready” category of infrastructure projects. However, by announcing a comprehensive strategy to become a leader in nuclear technology and generation, the government would unleash a host of planning and procurement processes. These processes alone, given their size and scope, have the potential to boost confidence in the province’s economy.

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Check out this great profile of AREVA Inc.’s president.  In this profile, Mr. Besnainou talks about the future of nuclear energy in the U.S. and some of AREVA’s plans for helping combat climate change.

As President of AREVA Inc., Jacques Besnainou provides oversight and vision for the North American arm of a world leader in energy. Besnainou, a French and American citizen, brought 20 years of management and systems engineering experience to his current role. He has served as senior executive vice president for the company’s Nuclear Back-End sector in France, managing recycling operations at two of AREVA’s plants and began his career as a systems design engineer. He also served as a civilian advisor for nuclear affairs at the French Ministry of Industry and spent several years in the United States directing an environmental consulting company and working at COGEMA Inc., a predecessor of AREVA.

“In the energy business we are faced with the growing challenge of providing clean energy for growing demand in a difficult market,” says Besnainou. AREVA uses multiple technologies to provide solutions for generating clean energy. The heart of the company’s clean-energy business is nuclear power, yet we are expanding our activities in renewables.

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