Struggling French nuclear power giant Areva notched some positive news this week, including Tuesday's announcement that used fuel storage division Areva TN had signed a module supply contract with Exelon Nuclear.
The contract calls for 30 NUHOMS horizontal storage modules (HSM)-H for used fuel that will be build at the Ntne Mile Point nuclear power plant in Scriba, N.Y. This will be an addition to the 40 existing units that were constructed at the plant in 2011.
The NUHOMS HSM-H system is designed to provide robust seismic resistance, which is achieved with reinforced concrete components, which are interlinked, side by side, rectangular modules.
Worldwide, Areva has sold 1,250 spent fuel storage systems, 900 of them in the United States. The NUHOMS system is in use at more than 40 percent of U.S. nuclear plants.
Areva also said this week it had completed decontamination of the Isar Unit 1 reactor pressure vessel, as well as auxiliary systems and internals for the Bavarian facility that is the first of two reactors at the plant to be shuttered as part of Germany's nuclear power phase out.
The decontamination process has reduced radioactivity levels by more than 95 percent. It is achieved through a chemical transformation that reduces chemicals injected in the reactor's primary circuit to carbon dioxide and water.
"Areva applied its decontamination process CORD UV in combination with its decontamination sysytem AMDA. This operation is based on progressive injection of chemical products into the reactor's primary circuit. Once the process is completed, the chemical substances are decomposed into carbon dioxide and water, leaving no additional waste," Areva said.
"Areva's decontamination technology has been used reliably in over 30 nuclear facilities worldwide, notably in Germany, Spain, France, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States. The completion of the work at Isar 1, a boiling water reactor, confirms our ability to perform these operations on all types of nuclear power plants," said Philippe Samama, Senior Executive Vice President of Areva's Reactors and Services Business Group.