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Team Woochuk, Samantha Blanks (left) and Devon Morris (right) pose with their robot after being announced as the winners of Robot Wars.

by Kelsey Massie, AREVA Corporate Communications Intern

Most high school students dread the approaching of summer’s end; however, for 10 Lynchburg, VA area high school students, the end of summer is exactly what they have been waiting for. These 10 students are AREVA’s summer high school apprentices, and for them, the end of summer means war. Robot Wars, that is.

For the past four years, the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Talent Expansion Program Grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) has allowed Central Virginia Community College (CVCC) and AREVA to provide a program dedicated to teaching and experiencing the nuclear industry in a unique and dynamic way. The goals of the summer program are to power future leaders and create a local pipeline of engineering talent to fill future job vacancies in our area. AREVA and CVCC are working together to cultivate a new generation of educated and innovative individuals who want to explore the engineering field as a career.

The SUMO Robot Wars is the capstone project for the apprentices. From staying under budget to modifying the robots for competition, the project is solely the students’ undertaking and simulates the conditions engineers work under on a daily basis. This year, five apprentice teams were mentored by AREVA engineering experts. The mentor assigned to each team assisted the students in modifying their stock robots to create the fiercest machine to compete for victory by pushing their opponents outside of the battle ring.

Steve Martin, Project Controls Specialist for Steam Generator Services (SGS), has been the program coordinator for AREVA since 2006. “These are the most amazing robots to date. They have used every aspect of engineering possible: mechanical, electrical, software programming, everything,” Steve said. This year the competition was held at AREVA’s Mill Ridge Road facility in Lynchburg where co-workers, family and friends were encouraged to attend.

For the competition, five teams of two were assembled to compete for an iPod shuffle and a year’s worth of bragging rights. The teams were constructed as follows:

• Team Domination: Grace Bouldin (Temple Christian School)
Ben Peters (Amherst County High School)
AREVA Mentors: Jenna Krotke and Stephanie Bruzek

• Team Pink Beast: Lindsey Pryor (Amherst County High School
Jamie Hamlett (William Campbell High School)
AREVA Mentor: Mark Lowery

• Team Quicksilver: Danielle Montalbano (Brookville High School)
Amir Tabaian (Jefferson Forest High School)
AREVA Mentor: Jared Petrie

• Team Transformer: Faith Bouldin (Temple Christian School)
Crown Ngugi (Liberty Christian Academy)
AREVA Mentor: Paul Childrey

• Team Woochuk: Samantha Blanks (Rustburg High School)
Devon Morris (E.C. Glass High School)
AREVA Mentor: Randy Krotke

This year there was an added twist to the competition, family rivalry. Twin high school apprentices Faith and Grace Bouldin competed on separate teams. “We really wanted to beat each other. Faith would ask what we did to our robot, but I made sure to keep it a secret,” said Grace. Lisa Bouldin, mother of the Bouldin twins, was there to cheer on both her daughters. “It’s going to be hard when they compete against each other. I’m proud of both of them. In my eyes it doesn’t matter who wins,” Lisa said. Faith and her partner Crown, known as Team Transformer, used a white tail as a defensive mechanism to modify their robot as all robots use infrared sensors to sense white and turn around. Grace and her partner Ben, Team Domination, added swiveling metallic arms as a decoy to distract their opponents. In the end, Team Domination’s design out- performed Team Transformer.

With a first-of-a-kind lifting scoop powered by a motor fitted with a limit switch, Devon Morris and Samantha Blanks of Team Woochuk were declared the winners with nine victories in a round robin competition among the five teams. “Our scoop definitely gave us the edge. I learned that there is always more than one solution to a problem,” said Devon. AREVA employee Randy Krotke, a Principle Engineer, acted as Team Woochuk’s mentor. “Being a mentor was challenging but I enjoyed the experience. Given the opportunity, I would love to be a mentor again,” Randy says.

Students’ experiences in the program have led many of the students to pursue a career in the engineering field. “Working at AREVA this summer has opened my eyes to the need for clean power and my desire to pursue a career in the nuclear engineering field,” said Jamie Hamlett.

AREVA has taken a unique approach to bringing young and talented individuals into the nuclear field, and is investing in the best and brightest students in the community in hopes to educate and prepare them to be the next generation of leaders in the nuclear energy industry. “This program is all about ‘growing your own.’ Our goal is to grow our own workforce right here in Central Virginia. What we do is a community service effort for Region 2000. It’s not just a job, it’s an education!” Steve said.

AREVA EPR reactor under construction in Finland

by Jarret Adams

Today’s New York Times contains an article that presents a clearly unbalanced report of the progress of the AREVA EPR™ reactor under construction at Olkiluoto, Finland. The article includes several inaccuracies and mischaracterizations all in the pursuit of the writer’s foregone conclusion, albeit posed as a question, “Is the Nuclear ‘Renaissance’ Fizzling?” Such is the title of the blog post accompanying the article. The print version bears the title, “Not So Fast, Nukes,” and the online version, “In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble.” Given these titles, one would not expect a charitable account of the nuclear revival now under way.

Well, from our perspective, the nuclear renaissance is going just fine, thank you.

Despite a global recession, AREVA increased sales in 2008 by more than 10 percent and grew its order backlog by more than 20 percent. We continue to negotiate new deals for EPR™ reactors and other AREVA products and services with customers around the globe.

We recognize that as with any first-of-a-kind project, there is bound to be a learning curve. We are learning much from the EPR™ reactor under construction in Finland and will apply this experience to future projects around the world. At our second EPR™ project in France, we’ve already implemented many of the improvements we’ve learned from the Finland project.

Before construction begins in earnest on the first EPR™ reactors in the United States, AREVA will have completed several others internationally. The success of the Olkiluoto project will not be measured on timetables alone but also on the quality of the product delivered.

In fact, the growing interest in new reactors and other aspects of the nuclear energy infrastructure worldwide suggests the nuclear renaissance is picking up speed.

In North America, we are very committed to a revival of nuclear energy. We are making investments such as a heavy component manufacturing facility in Newport News, Va., and a uranium enrichment facility in Idaho. We also are hiring hundreds of engineers at locations in Lynchburg, Va., and Charlotte to develop the U.S. EPR™ technology. These U.S. EPR™ reactors will be made in America, and their construction and operation will create thousands of new jobs.

In fact, AREVA plans to hire some 12,000 new employees this year worldwide. And our competitors in the nuclear energy sector also are hiring. Today more than 30 new reactors are under consideration in the United States. This hardly paints a picture of a revival that has run “into trouble.” The nuclear energy industry is not pursuing the investments for philanthropic purposes, but because it sees legitimate business opportunities.

Finally, to a few of the mischaracterizations: the article states that AREVA “turned to” Finland for the first EPR™ reactor after having difficulty selling the reactor in France. In fact, the Finland opportunity simply presented itself first. It also states that the NRC will delay review of a license application until the design certification for the U.S. EPR™ reactor is complete. At present, review of license application is being pursued in parallel with the design certification.

In the end, one can expect more articles arguing whether a nuclear renaissance will succeed fueled by those who desperately want it not to succeed. The fact is that nuclear energy’s revival already is under way, and AREVA is at the center of it.