Field Report: Discover pragmatic examples of customer benefits
24 hours in La Hague
12th shipment of vitrified nuclear waste from France to Germany (in french)
"Nuclear: energy for today and tomorrow" ad-information
Fuel, the heart of nuclear fission
AREVA, European leader in nuclear fuel
MOX for peace
Recycling and new reactors: AREVA advantages
Environmental protection in La Hague (France)
"The keys to nuclear energy" ad-information
Savannah River: recycling of military-grade plutonium
In 2000, the United States and Russia signed a bilateral agreement stipulating that each country would commit to eliminating 34 metric tons of surplus military plutonium produced during the Cold War by recycling it as fuel for civil nuclear applications. In 2008, the Department of Energy made an agreement with a joint venture created by the AREVA and SHAW groups for the construction of a MOX fuel production plant.
Combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
At the end of the Cold War, the United States and Russia began to cooperate to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
In 2000, the 2 countries each arranged to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus military-grade plutonium by recycling it as fuel for civil nuclear applications.
The decision was made to build 2 plants on the Savannah River site, in Aiken, South Carolina, as part of the American plutonium recycling program, comprising:
- a pit disassembly and conversion facility (PDCF), where nuclear warheads are dismantled and where the recovered metal is converted into plutonium oxide,
- a fuel fabrication plant (MFFF - Mixed-oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility), where plutonium oxide is mixed with uranium oxide to make MOX assemblies.
AREVA expertise
The Shaw-AREVA MOX Services joint venture, LLC (formerly Duke COGEMA Stone & Webster, LLC) was selected by the Department of Energy (DoE) to design, construct, and operate the MFFF MOX production plant.
This new plant will:
- facilitate the fulfillment of the 2000 American-Russian agreement on military-grade plutonium disposal,
- reduce the risk of plutonium proliferation,
- reduce the long-term storage costs for the plutonium,
- transform surplus military-grade plutonium into a commercial, civil asset (fuel).
MFFF relies on the expertise of the AREVA La Hague and MELOX plants. The construction of the plant, begun in 2007, continued in 2008 in compliance with cost and planning commitments.
The 4 test assemblies produced using military-grade plutonium by AREVA in its Cadarache plant in 2004 and 2005 have now finished their second irradiation cycle in the American Catawba 1 reactor (North Carolina), operated by electrical engineering firm Duke Power. Performance analysis of these assemblies has been very favorable. Post-irradiation tests have been now launched by AREVA.
