French nuclear plant construction firm Areva, which announced this week it would sell its Canberra Industries Inc. subsidiary, has signed a series of agreements with the China National Nuclear Corporation and China Guangdong Nuclear Power, the company said Tuesday.
A press release said the deals also involved French energy giant Electricite de France or EDF.
The Memorandum of Understanding letters are wide-ranging. They include cooperation on a nuclear fuel processes from extraction to recycling, including fabrication of zirconium fuel assemblies, a spent fuel processing facility, mining and conversion of uranium and transportation of fuel. The MOUs also set timelines for further negotiations and for cooperative research and development.
CGN and EDF also signed a letter of intent that sets a course for long-term development of reactors, building on the relationship developed with Taishan Nuclear Power Plant Phase 1, which involves Areva’s 1,750MW European Pressurized Reactor – a project majority owned by China Guangdong Nuclear Power group and owned 30 percent by EDF.
Areva remains in a restructuring mind-set after losing $5.37 billion in 2014. The French government is currently backing a sale of Areva’s nuclear unit to state-owned EDF.
Canberra Industries of Meriden, Conn., designs and manufactures nuclear management, monitoring and instrumentation systems. The company also specialized in radiation detection designed to safeguard nuclear plant personnel.
The company has about 1,000 employees and had revenue of $200 million in 2014.
Areva is 87 percent owned by the French government. The company is valued at about $3 billion.