Today, at AREVA’s La Hague Facility in France, CEO Anne Lauvergeon inaugurated the cold crucible, celebrating the first use of this advanced technology. This world first for the vitrification for high-level waste has been under development in collaboration with CEA (Atomic Energy Commission) for more than 25 years.

The principle of the cold crucible is to induce electric currents directly in the glass to raise its temperature without heating the crucible. The advantages of the technology include increased frequency of the vitrification, longer equipment life span, and the ability to vitrify wider range of products and reduce the volume of final waste.

Lauvergeon emphasized that “the cold crucible is an illustration of AREVA’s intention to continue and reinforce its research and development policy in order to continue to make innovation available to its customers.”

More information on this major technologic step forward here.

By Jarret Adams

In an effort to green up the debate on recycling nuclear fuel, several anti-nuclear activists have decided recycle some old misinformation about the topic. In fact, recycling nuclear fuel has some distinct advantages to the once-through approach proposed in the U.S. and deserves consideration as a solid option for our country.

As AREVA Executive V.P. Alan Hanson wrote in an op-ed last year, “Recycling nuclear fuel is a proven solution that makes waste management easier, conserves natural resources, is cost competitive and reduces proliferation concerns.”

So let’s hit a few of the largest myths being spread about recycling:

Myth: The volume of waste to be disposed in a deep geological repository is increased by recycling.

Reality: False. The volume of high-level waste for disposal would decrease by a factor of at least four. The toxicity of this waste would decrease by a factor of 10.

Myth: Recycling nuclear fuel is uneconomical.

Reality: Management of used nuclear fuel – whether you recycle or not – represents only 1 – 2% of the retail price of electricity generated by nuclear energy.  In addition , recycling offers other benefits in much the same way as recycling paper or glass costs provide other benefits.

Myth: The use of recycling would eliminate the need for a repository.

Reality: True. AREVA does not claim that recycling would eliminate the need for a repository. One would be required regardless of the used fuel management approach. But with recycling, the U.S. would avoid having to build more than one, perhaps forever.

Myth: Recycling has not been made commercial after decades of research and development.

Reality: AREVA has decades of experience recycling nuclear fuel safely, efficiently and economically for customers around the globe. Today, MOX fuel manufactured by AREVA is in use in 38 reactors in Europe and Japan. AREVA’s Back End business group, which includes recycling, last year posted revenue of about $2.2 billion.

Click here to take a virtual tour of AREVA recycling facility.

Today, AREVA hosted live a virtual tour of the La Hague Recycling facility in Normandy, France. The tour provided a closer look at AREVA’s decades of experience in safely and economically recycling used nuclear fuel. The discussion described how nuclear fuel recycling simplifies nuclear waste management, conserves precious resources and increases energy security. In addition to showing the audience first-hand through the activities involved in recycling, the tour highlighted that recycling is a proven practical option as part of America’s strategy for managing used fuel.

The entire tour is available for viewing in the link below. We encourage you to send us your questions on this topic as this tour is just a beginning for open dialogue and discussion on recycling as an option for the United States.

Access to the video available here, please note that you will be asked to register.

by Katherine Berezowskyj

Last week France’s TF1 television network featured AREVA’s innovative work under way in partnership with the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the University of Alabama for the development of a treatment to fight cancer.

The news team got to take a look inside AREVA’s La Hague Facility, in Normandy, where the idea of using AREVA’s expertise in nuclear engineering first came into being. The piece from TF1 also shows the important research and clinical testing underway with partners in the United States.

The clip is a great overview of this project, but unfortunately it’s in French. For those of you who are not fluent, there’s a cheat-sheet with a translation of the video right here (PDF).

AREVA Med, an AREVA subsidiary, is developing innovative methods for the production of the Lead-212 radio-isotope. This isotope has shown to be very promising in tests when used in the targeting therapy called Alpha radio-immunotherapy (Alpha-RIT). Alpha-RIT is a very powerful anti-cancer therapy that works by binding an isotope, like Lead-212, to a monoclonal antibody. Using the body’s own antigens, this treatment targets only cancer cells and destroys them using the high energy of Lead-212. While Alpha-RIT has potential to treat numerous types of cancers, including those that don’t respond well to chemotherapy or radiation, these radio-isotopes have traditionally existed in very limited quantities, hindering the development of new scientific treatments. This is why AREVA has focused on an isotope production method, to make sure Lead-212 is available for cancer research and future treatments.

• More about the AREVA Med project

Marvin Fertel of NEI wrote an op-ed in The Hill arguing that nuclear power is uniquely positioned to meet the demands of climate change legislation.   As we continue to need more and more electrical power – even with conservation – and as the need for legislation capping carbon emissions and mandating clean energy becomes more and more apparent, he says, nuclear energy becomes more and more attractive:
 

Electricity’s reach, of course, has long since eclipsed streetcars. It propels virtually the entire economy and is so vital that there is a discernible statistical correlation between a nation’s reliability of electricity supply and its mortality rate.
 
Electricity has long since become an inextricable part of our lives. Even with improved efficiency measures, our nation’s need for electricity — including reliable, carbon-free sources such as nuclear power plants — continues to climb.
 
A host of recent analyses has concluded that the nation’s use of nuclear energy must increase in the coming decades to meet rising electricity demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

 
He argues that Congress needs to take steps to expand the use of nuclear energy and deal with some of the issues that remain with nuclear energy, most notably streamlining the NRC’s licensing process and ensuring the availability of funding through loan guarantees and tax incentives.  
 
Finally, he writes, that one of the necessary steps for Congress is:
 

Mandating creation of a blue ribbon commission to re-examine management options for used nuclear fuel, and establishing incentives for state and communities to develop consolidated storage facilities for used nuclear fuel.

 
We agree that we need to look at better management options – including not just consolidated storage, but recycling.  AREVA has proven used fuel recycling technologies already working at our plants at La Hague and MELOX.  We think recycling should be an integral part of our strategy for dealing with used fuel here in the US as well.

By Katherine Berezowskyj

What’s next for nuclear reactors in the United States? Rebecca Smith of the Wall Street Journal just tackled the answer to this question.  Her recent piece, “The New Nukes,” took a look at what’s being developed for the new nuclear reactors and how they are going to “be safer, cheaper, and more efficient than current plants.”

With the majority of Americans seeing nuclear energy as a safe and effective way to battle climate change, Smith puts forward that “if there were ever a time that seemed ripe for nuclear energy in the U.S., it’s now.” Her piece took a fare look at the three key areas ─cost, safety, and waste─ where the nuclear industry has been vulnerable, but is now working to solve with development and deployment of a new generation of nuclear reactors.

Even with past accidents, the safety record of the nuclear energy industry has proved this image wrong by maintaining a rigorous safety program over the past 30 years.  This next generation currently being developed, the Generation III + reactors, “take everything that’s been learned about safe operations and do it even better.”

“Generation III plants cut down on some of that infrastructure and rely more heavily on passive systems that don’t need human intervention to keep the reactor in a safe condition—reducing the chance of an accident caused by operator error or equipment failure.”

One example discussed was AREVA’s EPR™ reactor whose safety features include upgraded active and passive safety systems and a double containment building.  Smith also pointed out that skeptical Union of Concerned Scientists have named it the “only design that is less vulnerable to a serious accident that today’s operating reactors.”

And just as safety has improved with new technology and design developments, so has the cost of new nuclear plants.  They are extending the traditional life of the plants to at least 60 years, and “the new plants are also designed to be much simpler and quicker to build, reducing financing costs by potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The issues regarding what do to with the used nuclear fuel include more options than building a permanent storage facility.  One possibility Smith mentions is the Generation IV fast reactors which are “designed to burn previously used fuel.”

We would like to mention another option for capturing all of the potential energy still remaining in used fuel─ recycling.  For more than 30 years at AREVA’s La Hague facility, we have been recycling used fuel in a process that exponentially reduces the volume of waste for disposal and allows some of the material to be used again as reactor fuel.

Read the whole article for the complete picture.  And be sure to check out the comments posted by readers where the discussion on nuclear energy continues.

To find out more on AREVA’s EPR™ for the United States, check it out on our website.

Here’s an informative video that takes you inside the world’s #1 facility for reprocessing used nuclear fuel. The AREVA La Hague industrial complex, located just west of Cherbourg, has recycled more than 21,000 tons of used fuel since its inception, reducing the need for natural uranium and the amount of radioactive waste.

Power Engineering’s most recent issue included a great piece on the need to rethink the situation for recycling nuclear fuel in the United States.

The article by Senior Editor Nancy Spring points out the key benefits that come from recycling used nuclear fuel. “In ballpark figures, it takes around 30 metric tons of fuel each year to power a 1,000 MW nuclear power plant. That creates 20 tons of waste. Because 96 percent of each fuel assembly is re-useable, with recycling the volume of waste is reduced by a factor of five. Radiotoxicity is reduced by a factor of 10 because the lower the volume of waste, the lower its toxicity. Plus, plutonium is removed from the final waste stream.”

Spring also notes how AREVA “operates the largest nuclear fuel reprocessing/recycling plant in the world. At the La Hague facility in northwest France, spent fuel from 90 to 100 nuclear reactors can be recycled each year, separated into uranium, plutonium and fission products, each one bound for the next use or final storage,” which is why she recently went to interview AREVA’s Remi Coulon.

As the director of the back-end sector, strategy and international projects, he answered some tough questions about the future of nuclear energy and recycling in the United States. “As you see, this won’t happen overnight, but we are honestly convinced that this is a sustainable path worth pursuing. Under appropriate conditions, the industry believes it is possible to privately finance such a project with the right guarantees. This project will fuel the economy for decades with recycled fuel, while contributing to solving a long-lasting national commitment regarding nuclear waste,” Coulon said.

For the complete article and interview, check out Power Engineering.

Clean Skies is a site for discussion and debate over energy and environmental policy in the U.S., including in-depth video news of important issues. As nuclear energy is a leading CO2-free energy source, the network has focused some recent pieces on key aspects of nuclear energy.

In a report from July 1^st, Clean Skies News talks about the success that France has had with nuclear energy, meeting approximately 80 percent of its energy needs.

http://www.cleanskies.com/videos/energy-report-7109-afternoon-edition

The following clip looks at another aspect of nuclear energy; the question of what to do with spent fuel in the U.S.  Here, the Clean Skies Team visits AREVA’s La Hague and MELOX recycling facilities for a report of the benefits of recycling technology.

http://www.cleanskies.com/videos/recycling-nuclear-waste

With almost one third of the project complete, the MOX (mixed oxide) Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is a great example of current construction and technology at work in the U.S. The facility construction began in August 2007 and already 263,000 square feet of office space have been completed, with 78,000 currently under construction. The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, approximately 17% complete, will be an impressive 600,000 square feet, roughly 10 football fields. The MFFF will host three separate units for shipping and receiving, aqueous polishing, and the MOX process.

While grand in scale, the construction site is securely at the center of 310-square miles of the DOE reservation in Aiken, South Carolina. The MOX facility has been a cooperative effort between Shaw, AREVA, and the Department of Energy to bring MOX fuel technology to the US. AREVA’s MELOX and La Hague facilities were the model for this project, based on more than 30 years of successful operation. The MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility is based on these two reference facilities and has been modified to meet with all of the US codes and standards including safety and security requirements.

The numbers that this project generates in employment are proportionate to its colossal construction size. Through its suppliers, the MOX project employs approximately 2,400 people spread across thirty states. On the site, more than 1,400 people are working for the Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC. This number will to jump to approximately 3,000 by late 2009 as the progress continues on construction and process unit manufacturing/fabrication. As the project will be licensed for 20 years, the MOX facility will require a steady workforce for decades to come.