AREVA has accepted the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) offer of a conditional commitment to issue a $2 billion loan guarantee to support construction of the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility, AREVA’s $3 billion state-of-the-art gas centrifuge enrichment plant in Bonneville County, Idaho.

The plant will provide American energy security by helping to secure the supply of domestic uranium enrichment to the country’s 104 operating nuclear reactors.

The construction, licensing, and operation of this facility will generate about 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in the United States, while producing more than $5 billion in economic activity in the regional economy.

More information on this announcement here Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility and AREVA’s investment in American energy security here.

We’d like to bring your attention to this article from KIDK.com (the local Idaho Falls television station), which talks about how Idaho Falls is weathering the current economic storm. The article, which is mostly about businesses in the Idaho Falls region, points out at the very end that AREVA’s planned Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility is bringing new hope to the region:

The biggest change our area will see will be the arrival of Areva and their multi-billion dollar uranium enrichment facility.

Not only will the company hire locals or bring in new jobs that will stimulate our local economy, a very hurting construction industry will be major benefactors of the company. [. . .]

Areva is likely to bring between 800 and 1,000 construction jobs alone. And once the facility is running, more than 300 jobs will be created.

That’s the kind of thing that can really help a local economy… because the money paid to the people who work those 800-1,000 construction jobs, and the 300+ permanent jobs, will keep circulating around the Idaho Falls region as the employees patronize local businesses and services. Idaho Falls is just one community that’s finding new vitality in the green jobs of the nuclear renaissance.

Idaho Falls, Idaho has been busy with AREVA activities for quite some time, and today was no exception as three AREVA Inc. subsidiaries collected into new office spaces. AREVA Federal Services, CANBERRA Inc., and AREVA Enrichment Services have taken their activities to the McNeil Building at Taylor Crossing.

AREVA Federal Services and CANBERRA Inc. have been a part of the Idaho Falls community for almost a decade. Their work supports the Idaho National Laboratory, operated by the Department of Energy, through waste characterization, packaging, and transportation. AREVA Federal Services operates as the direct point of contact for AREVA’s federal business, and CANBERRA leads the field in nuclear measurement.

AREVA Enrichment Services recently made Idaho Falls its home to continue with its advancement for plans to build and operate a state of the art centrifuge enrichment facility 18 miles west of the city.

As the picture for Idaho Falls continues to look bright, AREVA Federal Service’s Ed Gulbransen shared that “we enjoy the work we are performing for the site and plan to have a presence here for a very long time.” AREVA Enrichment Services Vice-President Bob Poyser echoed these thoughts as “We are making steady progress in the engineering and licensing of the enrichment facility and look forward to breaking ground for construction as planned in 2011.”

We’ve seen some questions floating around recently – most notably by Idaho Samizdat – about AREVA Enrichment Services’ recent submission for a revision of its license application to the Nuclear Regulation Commission for the possibility to increase facility capacity. As noted yesterday, AES has requested an increase in the future licensed capacity of the Eagle Rock facility from 3.3 million separative work units (SWU) to 6.6 million SWU per year. We’d like to take this chance to explain why we’re doing this.

Quite frankly, our plans have not changed. We still intend to build a 3.3 million SWU facility. As AREVA indicated before, the plant can be expanded if market conditions favor such expansion. The expansion decision will be made in the future based on the conditions at the time. Having said that, however we have higher level of confidence in new reactor construction in the U.S. and other parts of the world, which will contribute to higher demand for enrichment. To be ready for such possibility, and to reduce time and cost for both the NRC and AREVA we decided to apply for a license for a larger facility so in case AREVA decides to expand, it would be able to so without further licensing.

The decision to leave open the possibility of expansion demonstrates our confidence in the revival of the U.S. nuclear energy sector and our commitment to making this revival a reality. We’re seeing a lot of promise in the nuclear market worldwide and we are taking the prudent steps to prepare for it.

Please don’t hesitate to comment if you’ve got any more questions… we’d be glad to answer them! This kind of dialogue is exactly what this blog is designed for.

View of Earth from the Moon (NASA)

by Laura Clise

Earth Day made its debut on April 22, 1970, in response to the call by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson for a nationwide protest to protect the environment. What began as a statement of environmental activism, and gave birth to the U.S. EPA, is now increasingly linked to addressing economic crisis, international development and foreign policy. Environmental concerns have become increasingly a part of mainstream debate as governments and local communities around the world weigh in on topics including climate change policy, water accessibility, and deforestation. In other words, Earth Day and environmental awareness have become a lot broader than saving whales, planting trees, and recycling used cans.

The current call for a global transition to a low carbon economy presents both economic opportunities for investment in new technologies and simultaneously necessitates that countries like the U.S. make significant progress on the policy front.

The recent Ceres Conference: Achieving a Sustainable Global Economy brought together business leaders, investors, environmental and public interest organizations to examine critical domestic and international sustainability issues. A breakout discussion on, “the water energy conflict,” focused on the simple relationship between the two in a carbon-constrained world: Power uses water and water uses power. Both water and power are closely linked to climate change and have implications beyond the environmental realm.

As a leader and advocate for CO2-free power generation, AREVA is engaged in a multi-stakeholder dialogue regarding climate change, energy efficiency, and environmental impact and offers technological solutions that support the global transition to a low carbon, resource-constrained economy. Sustainable development is an integral part of AREVA’s global industrial strategy, reflected in its new enrichment facility in Idaho Falls, which will use 50 times less electricity than the previous technology and will not use water for its cooling process as well as the AREVA U.S. EPR reactor, which will save one million tons of CO2 annually compared to a coal plant.

Given the concurrent economic, energy, and environmental challenges, every day must be Earth Day. Individuals, communities, companies, organizations, and governments need to continue to integrate environmental, economic, and social sustainability into long-term growth strategies. If we relegate advocacy for environmental citizenship to a single day of awareness and activism, the consequences will negatively impact the economy, energy security, and geopolitical relations, threatening the sustainability of development around the world.

Mayor's Youth Advisory Council

We previously blogged about inviting 20 Idaho students who were members of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council for a week long visit to France to AREVA headquarters and to tour our Georges Besse II uranium enrichment facility, which is similar to the facility we’re planning at Eagle Rock near Idaho Falls.

We wanted the students to have a first hand experience of what is being planned for their community and to get their feedback. The Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council just releaed their own report from the trip and as student Ericka Gianotto wrote:

“We’re going to be able to go back into our schools and to the community and explain what’s coming and here’s what’s not, because it’s important for the students of our schools to realize we’re not going to be having nuclear reactors, we’re not going to have water towers, and here’s what it does and what it’s going to look like and what it plays a major role in the nuclear fuel cycle.”

Here are some more excerpts from their report:

This facility is nearly identical to the proposed Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility, with a few minor differences. For example, the Eagle Rock facility will have slightly lower air emissions, slightly lower water consumption and include a sloped roof while the Georges Besse II facility has a flat roof. These minor differences, however, will make the Eagle Rock facility an even more environmentally friendly plant….

Previous nuclear technologies did require large amounts of water. The centrifuge technology employed in this facilit y will not. The expected annual water usage of the Eagle Rock facility is comparable to the amount of water normally required to irrigate a golf course for a year, and is around one fiftieth that of the previously used enrichment technology….

The United States has a continually growing need for energy, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet this need. Some analysts are predict ing that by 2020, the United States will be unable to produce enough enriched uranium to meet its own demand for nuclear fuel. The Eagle Rock facility will be used to supply 25% of the needed enriched
uranium, and thus will decrease the amount of uranium that has to be imported, resulting in a more energy independent United States…
We would like to express the feeling of pride we have in our community, and how honored we are that all of the sites Areva was considering for this facility, they chose Idaho Falls.

We urge anyone with questions about this plant and anything related to it to feel free to ask any member of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council. We are excited about both the direct and indirect positive impacts this project will have on our community and hope that you share our enthusiasm and support for this project.

You can see the whole report here...

Mayor's Youth Advisory Council of Idaho Falls (click to enlarge)

The Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council of Idaho Falls had a full day Monday of scientific and cultural experiences near Avignon, France. The students toured and learned about the advanced technology under construction at AREVA’s George Besse II enrichment facility. This facility uses the same centrifuge technology that AREVA plans to bring to Idaho Falls at the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility.

Following the facility tour, local high school students and the mayor of local Pierrelatte welcomed the Advisory Council and Idaho Falls Mayor Jared Fuhriman as an opportunity for cultural exchange and their shared investment in the future of nuclear energy. Both acknowledged the importance of the students understanding enrichment technology and its positive impact on their community.

Mayor Yves Le Bellec of Pierrelatte said: “it was a good day for the city, AREVA, and for the future of the project with the presence of the young adults.” Mayor Fuhriman also commented how much the students had taken away from the day’s events and how much they learned about the science of enrichment. “As a result, I am even more confident in AREVA’s Eagle Rock facility coming to our community,” Fuhriman said.

Dan Yurman at Idaho Samizdat reprints an excellent editorial from Sunday’s Idaho Falls Post Register. The long and short of it is that it’s silly to pit one company against another when we’re talking about loan guarantees for future enrichment plants in the US… we need as many as we can get:

There are several idiotic debates under way at the moment — but pitting a uranium-processing plant in Idaho Falls against another proposed in Ohio has to top the list.

Watching the jockeying for $2 billion in federal loan guarantees makes for intriguing political theater. But it’s silly. The nation really needs both. . . .

Having three companies involved denies any one of them a chokehold on domestic fuel supply. It also provides a geographically dispersed network. . . .

This is no time for winner-takes-all politics. If Congress expands the loan-guarantee program, it does not mean more federal spending. It merely allows these companies to get financing more easily and cheaply.

We’d also like to add that these loan guarantees, in addition to costing the taxpayer nothing, would create jobs in the present for the folks who build the enrichment plants and in the long term, in steady, stable, community-supporting jobs in a high-tech and green industry.

by Jarret Adams

But it is not all about nuclear energy. AREVA also believes in the power of renewables to create significant numbers of green jobs, and we are working to expand our business in this sector.

Specifically, AREVA has partnered with Duke Energy to form ADAGE, which is focused on developing advanced biopower (biomass to electricity) plants in the United States. These facilities too will produce significant numbers of green jobs. Each facility will create 400 jobs during construction and about 100 jobs during operation. The goal of ADAGE is to build 10-12 new plants over the next six years—this means thousands of new jobs to say nothing of the additional green power they will produce.

In February, ADAGE signed a preliminary agreement with Energy Northwest to develop biopower plants in the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. The goal is to market the facilities to the 24 member companies of Energy Northwest with the hope of building one or more in the four-state region.

3-D Plan of Eagle Rock Facility

The good news is AREVA’s Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility to be built in Idaho is three months ahead of schedule, and we aren’t slowing down. AREVA is gearing up to launch detailed design, procurement, and construction planning of the facility. Even better, it will create some 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in Idaho through the life of the project.

In addition, we should expect an impact of as much as $5 billion on the local economy, including the capital invested by AREVA during the construction and operation of this state-of-the-art gas centrifuge enrichment plant and the associated economic impacts, according to recent study by the Regional Development Alliance. While AREVA waits for the NRC to complete the review of our application, we will keep moving; opening an office in Idaho Falls and appointing three new executives to the team.

AREVA is trying very hard to bring vital operations for nuclear energy industry to the heart of the U.S., but we cannot do it alone. We hope that the Department of Energy recognizes how necessary the loan guarantee is for this project’s finance needs in the frozen credit market.