French engineering and nuclear power contractor Areva said Wednesday it had signed two significant contracts, including one to perform outage and maintenance services for five U.S. nuclear power plants and one involving decommissioning at 12 sites in Britain.
Beginning in 2016, AREVA will provide integrated outage services for two boiling water and six pressurized water reactors. This contract includes inspection and maintenance services for the reactor vessel and vessel internals as well as the steam generators and reactor coolant pump motor refurbishments, the company said in a short statement that did not name the facilities involved.
The contract was simply defined as a three-year, multi-million dollar deal that represented another success for AREVA’s “Forward Alliance” program, which enables customers to combine a variety of advanced products and services into an integrated plan to meet their unique requirements.
“This new agreement is testimony to AREVA’s expertise in providing services for all types of nuclear reactors, even when it is not the original equipment manufacturer,” said Philippe Samama, Senior Executive Vice President, Reactors and Services Business Group.
Areva also said it had signed contract with Britain’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) Shared Service Alliance to provide engineering services for nuclear site decommissioning.
The contract concerns decommission targets in Britain under the auspices of Magnox Ltd. This deal includes the nuclear site at Dounreay in Northern Scotland, Radioactive Waste Management Limited’s site in Harwell and the Low-Level Repository in West Cumbria.
There are two parts to the decommissioning contract. The first involves engineering services for decommissioning projects. The second involves studies for management of waste from nuclear sites, which will be undertaken by Areva’s British consulting subsidiary Areva RMC.
“This agreement confirms our engagement to contribute to future decommissioning projects for nuclear sites other than Sellafield, where our company is already active. With this new agreement, AREVA, a historic partner with the British nuclear industry, continues to expand its engineering activities in the United Kingdom,” said Guillaume Dureau, Senior Executive Vice President of AREVA’s Back End Business Group.