An Areva executive said Monday that the company is in discussions with utilities to propose a spent-fuel recycling plant in the U.S..
Jacques Besnainou, CEO of the company's U.S. subsidiary, told reporters in Washington that Areva hopes to have a plant in the planning stage by 2015. Bloomberg and other news outlets quoted him as saying the plant would cost $20 billion to $30 billion and could be in operation by 2025.
His statements come as the Fukushima Daiichi crisis and the defunded Yucca Mountain waste repository have boosted interest in recycling the spent fuel collecting in pools and dry casks at nuclear plants around the country.
Besnainou did not offer further details about the company's potential partners or potential sites for a U.S. plant. But Areva likely would draw from its experience running a similar recycling facility in La Hague, France, which employs 3,000 people, according to Areva's website.