OPERATIONS / REACTORS AND SERVICES

March 09, 2012

Through its Safety Alliance program, AREVA has engaged with utilities over the past year to help them demonstrate and upgrade the safety of their nuclear plant fleets. As of today, over 30 Safety Alliance projects have been launched in 11 countries.

Through this program, AREVA provides a comprehensive range of products, services and solutions built around a 3-fold framework to help utilities meet every-increasing safety requirements and achieve today’s three main safety imperatives:

• Resistance to Major Hazards
• Robustness of Cooling Capability
• Prevention of Environmental Damage

“With our worldwide presence and engineering resources in all continents, AREVA has worked closely with utilities and has supported them in their safety assessments throughout the past year,” said Ruben Lazo, AREVA Chief Commercial Officer. “This close working relationship, combined with our own unique experience as an operator of nuclear facilities, led us to develop the Safety Alliance framework to provide an adapted structure for analyzing safety issues with today’s safety references and aspirations, and for assembling the solutions needed to address them.”

For each of the three safety imperatives, AREVA offers safety analyses, safety upgrades and safety procedures that are world-class, proven solutions as well as innovations specifically developed to respond to the new challenges utilities must face. More than 30 solutions are offered today and more are being developed.

Many utilities have already benefited from these enhancements. The latest example is the contract awarded to AREVA in late January to provide its filtered containment venting systems (FCVS) to the Cernavoda plant in Romania. The FCVS is a system that ensures the reactor building integrity by preventing the build-up of excessive containment pressure to prevent environmental damage and protect surrounding populations. The system, suitable for all types of reactors, is already installed in 50 nuclear power plants worldwide and can be easily retrofitted into existing plant thanks to its compact and modular design.

Some examples of AREVA’s extensive Safety Alliance portfolio includes: External hazard safety analysis, safety margin reassessment, flooding protection, alternative power supply, hardened 3^rd grid connection, hydrodynamic primary circuit seal, passive autocatalytic recombiners, state-of-the-art post-accident sampling systems and monitoring, used fuel recycling and interim dry storage, as well as training and advanced nuclear simulators.

Most of these products and services have already been successfully installed and implemented in hundreds of nuclear power plants worldwide:  

• AREVA’s diesel aggregates systems have been installed in more than 25% of the world’s nuclear fleet, in all NNP reactor types. They contribute to the robustness of the reactor’s cooling capabilities and leverage AREVA's long and solid experience in Emergency and Station Blackout Diesel Generators (EDG, SBO).  
• AREVA’s passive autocatalytic recombiners systems are installed in more than 100 NPPs in 17 countries. The passive devices prevent hydrogen explosions in the containment, even under server accident conditions, to ensure the reactor building integrity and protect against environmental damage.

AREVA can thus show solid references for each of its Safety Alliance solution, positioning the group as the leading partner for utilities to achieve their safety goals and secure their plants for now and the years to come, while reinforcing public confidence in nuclear energy.