AREVA Clinches German Nuclear Decommissioning Contract

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--AREVA NP, the nuclear arm of struggling French engineering giant AREVA S.A. (EPA:AREVA) (Paris, France), has secured a contract to decontaminate the primary loop of the Krümmel nuclear power plant (NPP), located in Geesthacht near Hamburg, Germany.

The contract was awarded by plant owner Vattenfall AB (Stockholm, Sweden), one of a number of nuclear operators in Germany that were forced to shut down older nuclear plants when the country decided to suddenly ditch nuclear power months after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. For additional information, see May 30, 2011, article - Germany Votes to Dump Nuclear Power.

AREVA said the project began last month and decontamination will be implemented in the first half of 2016. It will reduce the radiation level in the reactor pressure vessel, auxiliary systems and piping using two AREVA NP methods: the chemical-oxidation-reduction-decontamination (CORD) UV and the Automated Modular Decontamination Appliance (AMDA), the company explained. These revolve around the progressive injection of chemical products into the reactor's primary circuit. Once the process is completed, the chemical substances used are decomposed into carbon dioxide and water, leaving behind no additional waste.

"This decontamination technology has been used reliably in over 30 nuclear facilities worldwide, including boiling and pressurized water reactors," said Michael Cerruti, sales executive vice president of AREVA Reactors & Services Business Group. ". This new contract confirms customers' confidence in our decontamination technology for all types of nuclear power plants."

Krümmel, a 1,260-megawatt (MW) plant which was commissioned in 1983, is one of the country's oldest nuclear plants. It was shuttered in June 2007 after a transformer fire, and despite reopening in June 2009 after a major maintenance it experienced an emergency shutdown one month later after an outage in a 33-year-old transformer. It was still closed when Germany decided to pull the plug on nuclear power two years later. Since then, Germany's nuclear operators have set aside 38.3 billion euros ($44 billion) to cover the cost of decommissioning all of their nuclear plants. For additional information, see October 16, 2015, article -- Germany Sets Aside $44 Billion to Decommission Nuclear Fleet.

AREVA has been struggling financially for years, but a new rescue plan spearheaded by the French government and state utility Electricite de France (EPA:EDF) (EDF) (Paris) is underway. In August, Industrial Info reported that EDF would purchase a controlling stake in the nuclear reactor business of AREVA for 2.7 billion euro ($2.96 billion). For additional information, see August 4, 2015, article - EDF to Take AREVA's Nuclear Business in $2.96 Billion Deal.

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