Please see below a response from a DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) spokesperson to an innaccurate and misleading new release issued yesterday by an anti-nuclear organization regarding MOX fuel and the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. As we have mentioned many times here, AREVA has many satisfied MOX fuel customers around the world and decades of experience in producing safe, efficient MOX fuel assemblies. Here is the NNSA statement:

“The news release issued today by Friends of the Earth is inaccurate and draws incorrect conclusions about the performance of the MOX lead test assemblies and the overall state of the Department’s mixed oxide fuel program at the Savannah River Site.  Shaw AREVA MOX Services and the National Nuclear Security Administration remain steadfast in our commitment to dispose of surplus weapons plutonium in a manner that results in the safe, affordable, and carbon-free generation of electricity for the benefit of American public.  Not only will the fuel produced at the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility produce enough energy to power one million homes for 50 years, but the disposal of weapon-grade plutonium is a key component of President Obama’s commitment to strengthening international arms control and nonproliferation programs.  In addition, the Department of Energy has evaluated numerous approaches for disposing of surplus weapon-grade plutonium and, simply put, there is no, ‘cheaper, safer and faster alternative.’  This critical project also is important for the Southeastern region of the United States, where it will create jobs and stimulate the local economy.” –NNSA Spokesperson Jennifer Wagner

by Lisa Peterson

Who are we?

AREVA subsidiary, AREVA Federal Services, works to support the Department of Energy in projects throughout the United States. Some of the important work going on right now includes nuclear engineering services, such as nuclear waste cleanup activities, nuclear nonproliferation, nuclear energy sciences and radioactive waste services.

AFS came about in 2007 to meet the growing needs of the Department of Energy. As an integral part of AREVA North America, AREVA Federal Services can provide its customers with the best in technologies and services. AREVA Federal Services personnel have been in the business for many, many years and are very experienced in the nuclear energy industry.

A little about what we do:

Nuclear Waste Cleanup
AREVA Federal Services is actively involved in the nuclear waste clean up efforts out at the Hanford site in southeast Washington State. The Hanford site is the largest environmental cleanup project in the U.S. Just last year, we won two contracts to be a major subcontractor to the Tank Operations Contract and to the Plateau Remediation Contract.

The Tank Operations project is for the complex and challenging cleanup of 53 million gallons of residual radioactive and chemical waste stored in 177 large aging underground tanks grouped in 16 farms at the 586 square mile Hanford site. The tank contents include material from the World War II years and post-war production of material for nuclear weapons. AREVA Federal Services is a member of the Office of River Protection LLC, the group responsible for safely managing the waste until it is prepared for disposal.

There is about 2,300 tons of used nuclear fuel, 11.5 tons of plutonium in various forms and 25 million cubic feet of solid waste in the Hanford Plateau. The Plateau Remediation project involves environmental and facility cleanup at the Plutonium Finishing Plant.

Contributing to Nuclear Nonproliferation
Down at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, South Carolina Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC is building a facility to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium. The MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility will take surplus weapons-grade plutonium, remove its impurities and mix it with uranium oxide to form MOX fuel pellets for nuclear fuel reactor assemblies. These assemblies are then used in commercial nuclear power reactors.

Aerial View of MOX Facility Construction

In other words, Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC, which AREVA Federal Services is a partner in, takes nuclear weapons-grade plutonium and reduces it down to usable fuel to power America.

That’s just a glimpse of what we do. AREVA Federal Services does much more too! The next blog will focus on AREVA Federal Services’ role and experience in nuclear energy sciences and our radioactive waste services. Stay tuned!

by Katherine Berezowskyj

Yesterday Japan’s Chugoku EPCo utility signed a contract for AREVA to supply 40 Mixed-Oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies for one of the reactors at the Shimane nuclear power plant located in the city of Matsue.

MOX fuel is a distinct blend of uranium and plutonium oxides, but is particularly interesting because the plutonium used in the fuel is recovered from used nuclear fuel and fabricated into MOX fuel at AREVA’s MELOX plant in southern France. AREVA has decades of experience fabricating MOX fuel assemblies that have been used for energy generation in several countries including the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Japan.

And right now AREVA is in the process of bringing this recycling expertise to the United States. As Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC, we are currently constructing the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. This Department of Energy project will be a facility that removes surplus weapons-grade plutonium and recycles it to make MOX fuel for use in nuclear reactors. When completed, the facility will have the capacity to take 3.5 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium and turn it into MOX fuel each year, providing the United States with important energy and non-proliferation benefits.

To find out more about the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility, click here.

Rob Pavey of The Augusta Chronicle coined the project “a new mission for an old plant,” as the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility, currently under construction by Shaw AREVA MOX Services on the Department of Energy Savannah River Site, becomes an integral part of a global effort for nuclear arms reduction, world peace, and security.

“Workers will transform 34 metric tons of plutonium taken from about 10,000 dismantled nuclear bombs into something much less sinister, in fact beneficial: fuel rods that can be sold to utilities for use in commercial nuclear reactors.”

The facility is a massive undertaking using more than 170,000 cubic yards of concrete and 35,000 ton of reinforcing steel to complete the 600,000 square-foot facility. When fully operational, the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility will be capable of turning 3.5 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium into MOX fuel assemblies each year.

The Chronicle also points out how this project is a highly-regarded solution for weapons disposal. Current Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, was quoted as saying “the men and women building the MOX Facility at Savannah River Site are working day and night to advance our vital national security interests…this facility will allow us to lead by example by demonstrating our commitment to eliminating surplus weapons plutonium in a transparent and irreversible manner.”

To read the rest of the article that includes some great background on the MOX projects, check out “MOX: The Future of SRS.”

For more information on the MOX Project, check out the official site.

We love to write about things like this! 

Congratulations to our colleagues at Shaw AREVA MOX Services, who raised more than $26,000 for children’s charities at this year’s annual Celebrity Waiter Night in Aiken, S.C.  The money will be used to provide daycare, meals, and help to at-risk kids in the Aiken County area.

According to Dave Stinson, president and project manager for Shaw AREVA MOX Services, volunteers were motivated by the need to help others:

Our focus was on helping Children’s Place meet the needs of the children and families they serve, and that drove us to exceed even our own expectations… The hard work of our employee waiters, the generosity of our guests, and the helpfulness and wonderful food of Casa Bella put us way over the top.

Floyd Bartoe, cost manager for Shaw AREVA MOX Services and Celebrity Waiter Night coordinator, added:

Our employees and subcontractors really put the ‘fun’ in fundraising, from a golf tournament, raffles, and a silent auction to an in-house band and strolling Elvis. We had so much fun last year, and it’s such a worthy cause; we had to try to do better this year.

Arial View of MOX Facility Construction

Yesterday, an editorial in the Aiken Standard spotlighted the important work taking place at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.

“The Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility at SRS is to turn some 34 tons of weapons grade plutonium into a component for fuel rod assemblies that will power nuclear reactors to generate electricity.”

“In addition to working toward a goal of removing the 34 tons of plutonium from the nuclear weapons arsenal, Shaw AREVA MOX (Services LLC) has become a solid corporate citizen, giving back to the communities which provide homes for many of its employees.”

For more information on the progress of construction at the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility─ which just celebrated its two year milestone─ or to find out more on what is MOX fuel and its non-proliferation benefits, check out the website here.

We also recommend you have a look at the rest of the piece, “MOX Facility Taking Shape.”

The concrete foundation is completed at the MOX facility. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

by Jarret Adams

With the second anniversary of construction work at MOX project in South Carolina, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) issued a press release announcing that it has launched some new media tools for keeping people up to speed on the project. The MOX project also has a new website.

The MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility will play an essential role in the nation’s nonproliferation efforts by converting surplus weapons-grade material into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. In effect, the MOX project will permanently eliminate this material while providing a reliable source of fuel to produce CO2-free electricity for Americans.

“The progress made on the construction of the facility over the past two years brings us one step closer to eliminating surplus plutonium in a transparent and irreversible manner,” NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino said in a press release.

It’s also great to see NNSA using new social media; click here to follow NNSA news on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

As a reminder, you can also follow AREVA Inc. on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

On Thursday, the Tennessee Valley Authority signed a letter of intent agreeing to evaluate using mixed-oxide (MOX) recycled fuel in two or more of their nuclear reactors. This is a positive step for Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC, which is currently constructing the MOX Fuel fabrication Facility in South Carolina. When operational, it will recycle excess weapons-grade plutonium into MOX fuel for nuclear power plants, providing clean, carbon-free nuclear energy–contributing to the reduction in nuclear weapons stockpiles worldwide.

Construction of the facility has been going successfully since it started in 2007. Already 263,000 square feet of office space has been completed, with 78,000 currently under construction, not to mention over one million safe work hours already logged. The facility should open in 2016, and when it’s up and running it will be turning 3.5 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium into MOX fuel each year, which we hope to supply to many customers–including TVA. We’re proud to be working with the Shaw Group on this important endeavor for nuclear energy and nonproliferation in support of U.S. energy and security needs.

A link to AREVA’s press release can be found here.

To check out more information on the project, go to the MOX Project website.

Yesterday, President Obama said in a BBC interview: “Without going into specifics, what I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations. On the other hand, the international community has a very real interest in preventing a nuclear arms race in the region.”

Thus, we thought that this would be a good time to highlight AREVA’s commitment to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and our being a partner in the US Department of Energy’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative. As it says on the DOE’s site:

The mission of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) is to reduce and protect vulnerable nuclear and radiological materials located at civilian sites worldwide. GTRI helps the Department of Energy achieve its Nuclear Security Goal to prevent the acquisition of nuclear and radiological materials…Three key subprograms of GTRI –Convert, Remove, and Protect—provide a comprehensive approach to denying terrorists access to nuclear and radiological materials.

As part of this commitment to remove weapons-grade material from stockpiles, AREVA has partnered with the Shaw Group to build the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. This facility when complete with convert the weapons-grade plutonium into MOX fuel for use in commercial nuclear power plants. This $4.9 billion project now under construction employs some 1,000 workers and is being built for DOE.

On a blog hosted by the Augusta Chronicle, reporter Rob Pavey provides a good summary of the situation at the MOX facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Shaw AREVA MOX Services is building the facility which will convert nuclear weapons material into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for U.S. nuclear power plants. The reporter effectively describes why there have been some misunderstandings in the media regarding reports issued on the MOX Project. He writes:

The mixed oxide, or “MOX” facility, emerged in the crosshairs of an audit unveiled last week by DOE’s Inspector General, whose critical findings included the purchase of 9,500 tons of substandard rebar for the $4.8 billion project.

However, he notes that this issue was not new and already had been resolved:

Last December, just a couple weeks before Christmas, a different federal agency—the Nuclear Regulatory Commission—filled a conference room in Aiken with scientists and government officials to talk about essentially the same thing.

The commission’s inspectors spent more than 4,300 staff hours over a two-year period evaluating all aspects of the MOX project, including quality control programs, construction activities and recordkeeping, said Deborah Seymour, chief of the NRC’s Construction Projects Inspection Branch.

“There were no specific areas that needed improvement,” she said at the time, noting that the only “minor violations” were detected.

The NRC’s clean bill of health for the project was made with full knowledge of the faulty rebar issue, which had also been explored in a Dec. 10 report issued by the House Energy and Water Subcommittee.

To read more: Who’s keeping an eye on Savannah River Site? Apparently, everyone.

It bears mentioning once again that Shaw AREVA MOX Services is committed to building a safe, well-constructed facility that protects its workers, the public and the environment. Our work on the construction of the MOX Facility has always met the most stringent safety and quality standards and that will never change.