AREVA to Provide La Salle Fuel Reloads

News brief

ACTIVITIES / NUCLEAR POWER

January 31, 2005

AREVA's joint subsidiary with Siemens, Framatome ANP Inc., and Exelon Generation Corporation agreed to resume fuel supply activities, including a contract extension for six additional reload batches for La Salle nuclear power plant units 1 and 2. Deliveries of Framatome ANP's advanced ATRIUMTM-10 fuel assemblies are scheduled to occur in late 2005 and continue through the fall of 2014.

Jim Malone, Exelon Vice President, Nuclear Fuels, noted in his review of progress on product and manufacturing improvements, "Framatome ANP has made a significant investment in its Richland plant to introduce best practice technology from its various world-wide manufacturing facilities. These process improvements position Framatome ANP to be a quality supplier that will serve the needs of the La Salle units for years to come".

This agreement is the culmination of a long technical collaboration between Exelon and AREVA to determine why several fuel failures occurred in the ATRIUM-9 product line. AREVA employed its global experience base and enlisted the support of industry expertise to conduct extensive pool-side and hot cell facility examinations of the failed rods.

"We are committed to working with our customers to eliminate all fuel failures through our global Zero Tolerance for Failure initiative launched within AREVA," said Tom Patten, Framatome ANP Inc. Vice President, BWR & Asian Fuel. "Our level of understanding acquired as a result of the examinations together with our implementation of advanced manufacturing technology will allow us to preclude similar fuel failures in the future".