According to an Associated Press article published today, U.S. electric utilities are looking to buy reactors “off-the-shelf,” choosing from a few different reactor designs. The article focuses on Southern Company’s new reactor at Plant Vogtle under development in Georgia. While the Vogtle project uses the AP1000 design, the piece also mentions AREVA’s EPR technology and several other designs.

Jacques Besnainou, CEO of AREVA North America, said safety was a selling point for his firm’s EPR, which has a system to catch and cool a molten core in the event of a major accident.

Despite the challenges of building new plants, he said, AREVA is benefiting from its experience in Finland and France, and the two EPR projects are on schedule.

“The key here is to be able to demonstrate that we can build a new reactor on time and on budget,” he said. “Once we do that, the renaissance as a whole is golden.”

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Here is some of the recent news and comments made about our announcement for a third Clean Energy Park yesterday.

“AREVA Won’t Build a Prototype” from the New Brunswick Business Journal

Jacques Besnainou, chief executive officer of Areva Inc. in North America, was in Saint John Thursday to announce plans to examine the feasibility of building a reactor and creating a clean energy park here and sign a letter of intent with the province. He told the Telegraph-Journal that if the project ultimately goes forward, construction of a reactor will begin by around 2015. By that time, Areva will have completed third generation-plus reactors in Finland, France and China.

From the Telegraph Journal, Possible Lepreau 2 Good News, Say Business Groups

The prospect of a second nuclear reactor creating up to 8,500 direct and indirect jobs, investments in education and growth of the energy hub is good news for the region, business associations say. “We can see the lift that big projects have given to Saint John as a community,” said Mike Murphy, chairman of the Saint John Board of Trade.

“A project like this would bring additional jobs and wealth and prosperity to our community and help us sustain that core momentum,” he said.

From CBC News, AREVA, N.B. Reveal Nuclear Plans

“The New Brunswick government recognizes the integral role the energy sector has in growing our economy,” said [Premier Shawn] Graham in a media release.

“Although this announcement is just a first step, a project of this magnitude would create 8,500 direct and indirect jobs for New Brunswickers in all regions of our province.”

Last week, CNBC’s Executive Vision focused on the energy industry and the changes that are taking place to make U.S. sources cleaner and improve domestic energy security. The episode, “Being a Leader, a Job that’s Never Done,” talks with industry executives and experts, including AREVA North America President Jacques Besnainou. The segment on nuclear energy begins at 14:35 and looks at the current situation for nuclear energy means and what additional capacity could mean for the United States. Following the overview, the energy panel discusses the need for more nuclear energy.

After watching the clip, let us know if you agree or disagree with what the experts said.

by Mary Beth Ginder

AREVA North America President Jacques Besnainou chatted today with members of the North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN) in a webinar session hosted by NA-YGN’s professional development committee. Jacques spoke informally and answered member’s questions about the need for nuclear recycling capabilities in the U.S. Recycling offers a safe, competitive and sustainable way to deal with used fuel. As we wait for the Department of Energy Blue-Ribbon panel to weigh different options for managing used fuel, the AREVA model for recycling offers a proven solution for conserving resources and creating a more sustainable fuel cycle.

As a follow up to the webinar chat, here are a couple of PDF documents that might be of interest:

• a Boston Consulting group study on “Economic Assessment of Used Nuclear Fuel Management in the United States”
• Recycling Slideshow from Jacques Besnainou

We’ve collected some of the highlights from last Friday’s first “Jacques Talk” conference call with AREVA North America President Jacques Besnainou. The conversation was wide-ranging and open, and we’re really glad Jacques had the opportunity to talk directly with the nuclear energy blogging community. If you’re a nuclear energy blogger and you’d like to be in on the next conference call, send us an email.

They’re all in MP3 format.

Jacques Besnainou on the NYT Article about Olkiluoto

Jacques Besnainou on Recycling

Jacques Besnainou on Canadian Loan Guarantees

Jacques Besnainou on Lessons Learned from Olkiluoto

Jacques Besnainou on International Enrichment Markets

If you’d like to listen to the whole call unedited, you can download it here.

We do appreciate the review of our recent blogger conference call. From Dan Yurman:

Areva North American President Jacques Besnainou is like a starship captain. This past week he went where no reactor vendor CEO has gone before by opening up, unfiltered by corporate PR, to a group of nuclear energy bloggers. The company has claimed it will practice “transparency” in its communication with the public and the press. This week it got a chance to prove it and it did a pretty good job. . . .

Our hour was up so that ended the first “Jacques talk” session with bloggers. The company is making progress from its assessment a year ago that it had a “blind spot” when it comes to nuclear energy bloggers. The firm promised future sessions with Besnainou and he reportedly came away from the session enthusiastic about the vigorous give and take of the conversation. Hopefully, there will be more of it.

And the write up from Steve Aplin:

The conference call, as I mentioned in my May 14 post, is part of Areva’s groundbreaking North American outreach effort. And I say groundbreaking because the company is not shy about going on the record about some pretty controversial issues.

We had a great time, as did Jacques Besnainou, and we’re finding a good date for the next call that he can attend again. Stay tuned. Also, if you’re a blogger and you’d like to be in on our monthly conference calls, let us know in the comments or send us an email.

by Jarret Adams

Today AREVA launched a major campaign to support its global recruitment efforts. We’re focusing this effort in six major countries or regions, including North America, China, France, Germany, India and the Middle East. Our worldwide goal is to recruit 12,000 people, mostly engineers and technicians, this year.

In North America, AREVA plans to hire some 700 new employees this year, which would represent a 10 percent increase to its current work force on the continent. “We are aggressively recruiting top-notch employees in North America to support an ambitious expansion of our nuclear energy, renewables and electricity transmission and distribution businesses, which is now under way despite a difficult economic environment,” said Jacques Besnainou, President of AREVA Inc.

It’s interesting to note that during a time when many companies are cutting payroll, AREVA is looking to expand. This expansion speaks volumes of the value in the marketplace for our clean energy solutions, such as nuclear power, renewables and smart grid applications.

The recruitment of new employees in North America will support some of our major projects in development, including the AREVA Newport News manufacturing facility in southern Virginia, the Eagle Rock enrichment facility in Idaho, the detailed design of the U.S. EPR™ reactor under way in Lynchburg, Va., and Charlotte, N.C., and new smart grid applications at our facility in Redmond, Washington.

Click here to apply.

Announced today, AREVA has formed a new company dedicated to the development of powerful new anti-cancer treatments. AREVA Med LLC will work to target aggressive forms of cancer that currently have limited treatment options. If successful in clinical trails, the new treatments would be used in advanced types of nuclear medicine, such as alpha radio-immunotherapy, for the targeting these aggressive types of cancer. AREVA Med will participate in new treatment development with top oncology centers worldwide. AREVA signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute in Jane 2008 to develop treatment using lead-212. AREVA Inc. President, Jacques Besnainou, said “AREVA Med represents the synthesis of decades of experience in nuclear energy and our company’s long-term commitment to sustainable business approaches, including nuclear materials that could prove beneficial in new applications.”

Fuel for Thought:
Sustaining the Nuclear Revival with a Sustainable Fuel Cycle

Editorial Column by Jacques Besnainou, President, AREVA Inc.

As we work toward the revival of nuclear energy in the United States, we are addressing some of the key challenges of our time. We are helping to meet the nation’s growing energy needs while preventing the emissions of additional greenhouse gases.

Companies in the United States are considering the construction of more than 30 new nuclear power reactors, and worldwide, new commercial reactors are already under construction, including four AREVA Generation III+ EPR™ reactors in Finland, France and China. But for nuclear energy to continue this revival, we must move toward a more sustainable fuel cycle, which in practical terms means broad use of recycling. Recycling nuclear fuel enables us to conserve natural resources and helps us to effectively manage used fuel.

Clearly, the nuclear waste issue is one of the main concerns the public has with generating electricity with nuclear energy. But we recycle paper, plastic, aluminum-why not nuclear materials? Recycling is indeed an ecological necessity in modern societies. Why do some regard the notion of nuclear recycling with such suspicion? France and other nuclear energy countries have proven that they can recycle safely and efficiently and have been doing so for decades. AREVA is justifiably proud of its facilities near Cherbourg and Avignon where much of this work takes place.

read more…

by Jacques Besnainou, President of AREVA Inc.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to AREVA’s blog for North America. We hope this blog will offer a forum on energy issues and our activities in North America. We also hope to foster discussions about energy issues and foster discussions about combating climate change, increasing energy security, and improving economic growth. It will also focus on AREVA’s solutions for clean power generation and electricity distribution in North America.

Though we are joining a diverse and exciting energy blog community, AREVA is the first nuclear energy company, and one the first energy companies of any kind to maintain a blog. This is very much in keeping with our policy of openness with our stakeholders, a policy spearheaded by our CEO Anne Lauvergeon and supported by the rest of the AREVA team.

read more…