Markets for the Back End business group

The global recycling market for used fuel is highly concentrated and strongly framed by strict technical and regulatory requirements.

Its main features include:

• a concentrated activity, with just a handful of suppliers of recycling services,
• very high level technological expertise,
• operations with a high capital intensity,
• stringent requirements in terms of safety, emissions and environmental impact,
• a limited number of customers and the performance of services as part of long-term contracts.

The installed capacity of the La Hague and MELOX plants, as well as AREVA's accumulated experience make the group the world leader for recycling. The group is currently active in 4 markets: the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and China.

In the United States

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has publicly supported research for the development of a closed nuclear fuel cycle. In 2010, Chu stated that  "nuclear energy provides clean, safe, reliable power and has an important role to play as we (the US) build a low-carbon future".

AREVA is well placed to benefit from this new energy policy. The recent placing of contracts by the Department of Energy (DoE) with Savannah River and Yucca Mountain make AREVA a player in the solution for challenges linked to the management of high-level waste and the recycling of used fuel.

In the United Kingdom

The NDA (Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) is currently drawing up a waste management strategy, and studies are being carried out for the definition of a geological storage site.

In March 2008, the first management contract for a low-radioactivity waste storage site near Drigg was awarded to a consortium by the NDA.

In November, after a long, hard competition phase, the NDA awarded a contract worth several billion pounds with the NMP consortium (comprising AREVA, AMEC and URS-Washington) for the management of the Sellafield site. End 2009, around ten AREVA employees were transferred to Sellafield to carry out the management contract for site decommissioning, working alongside representatives of the other NMP partners. The AREVA specialists provide expertise in the fields of production, maintenance and quality control procedures.
In 2009, the British government launched a request for bids for the long-term management of the country’s stores of plutonium.

In Japan

The country remains committed to recycling:

• On the processing side, the technology transferred by AREVA to the Rokkasho-Mura plant is now operational and the plant should enter commercial service beyond 2010.
• For the fabrication of MOX fuel, the JMOX plant, forecast to commence operations in 2015, will also be located at the Rokkasho-Mura site. 
• From 2006 to 2009, AREVA signed used fuel recycling contracts with Japanese electricity producers Chubu, Kyushu, Shikoku, Kansai and EPDC. 
• Furthermore, AREVA signed a contract at the end of 2009 for the provision of 40 MOX fuel assemblies for reactor No. 2 at the Shimane nuclear power plant, operated by the Japanese electricity producer Chugoku EPCo.

Seven Japanese electric power companies have today signed contracts for the fabrication of MOX fuel, making Japan AREVA’s 2nd  leading customer for fuel recycling, just behind EDF, the French Electrical Authority.

In China

China has made a firm choice for the development of nuclear energy as one of the means to meet its growing electricity needs. Major prospects are therefore opening up in CHINA for AREVA across the nuclear cycle: Mining, Front End, Reactors & Services, and Back End.

Therefore, upon the signing of an intergovernmental agreement regarding industrial cooperation for the back end of the fuel cycle, AREVA and CNNC (China National Nuclear Cooperation) have started feasibility studies for the construction of a recycling plant for used fuel in China.

The Nuclear Site Value Development business unit utilizes 3 industrial sites in France, which carry out cleanup and dismantling operations:

The La Hague site

The operation of the first plant at the AREVA La Hague site (UP₂ 400) began in 1966. It provided the recycling of fuels for graphite gas (UNGG), light water, and research reactors.

Following the introduction of the new UP₂ 800 and UP₃ plants, the UP₂ 400 recycling facilities were shut down at the end of 2003. They will be dismantled between now and 2035, and the waste will be collected and packaged before storage.

4 public inquiries are required for dismantling the totality of the UP2-400 facility. The initial green light was given in August 2009 with the publication of a decree authorizing the dismantlement of a portion of the INB 80 plant.

The Cadarache site

The AREVA Cadarache MOX fuel fabrication plant ceased its commercial production on July 16, 2003.

AREVA is currently carrying out 2 different types of operations at the site:

• The reconditioning and removal of reusable materials taken from previous fabrication, with the aim of recycling it. This operation was completed in June 2008.
• The implementation of facility cleanup and dismantling operations prior to transfer to CEA facilities. Equipment cleaning and dismantling methods have been developed since 2003 to prepare the way for the start-up of dismantling operations, which were commenced in the second half of 2008. These operations are expected to continue through 2012. More than one-third of the installations had been dismantled by end 2009.
  Feedback from these operations not only benefits the technical developments brought to the MELOX plant, but also optimizes future MOX fuel fabrication plants across the globe.

The Marcoule site

At its Marcoule site, AREVA has been cleaning up and dismantling nuclear facilities that have reached the end of their service life, and operating different industrial units to support the dismantling works.

The reclamation operations undertaken since 1998 are the most extensive found in the world. Since 2005, Marcoule has been conducting these operations as both the engineer and industrial operator on behalf of the CEA, as part of  an industrial partnership agreement valid through 2015.

The Logistics business unit mainly covers the needs of electricity companies operating nuclear reactors, and the needs of industrial companies in the sector (mining, enrichment, recycling, etc). It also includes the specific needs of nuclear study centers and research reactors.

In Europe

Most nuclear electricity companies use the services provided by the Logistics business unit for the transportation of their nuclear materials (from uranium to end waste). On the closed cycle, EDF is the main transmitter of used fuel to the AREVA La Hague recycling plant.

In the United States

To date, American electricity companies do not recycle the used fuel originating from their power plants. The government is committed to tackling this with permanent storage, set to come into operation by 2020.

Transnuclear Inc. was selected by the DoE in 2008 to develop special packaging for the storage of used fuel at the Yucca Mountain site. Pending this, electricity companies have growing needs in terms of interim dry storage capacities at their electrical power plant sites. Transnuclear Inc. is the leader of this market.

In Asia

The group's principal Asian presence is in Japan, which currently uses French and British expertise to process and recycle its used fuel. It is therefore necessary to ship recycled fuel between Europe and Japan (MOX) alongside waste taken from the recycling of used fuel. Interim storage capacities for used fuel will be necessary beyond 2010.

The Logistics business unit - the leading world player in its 2 areas of work - is the sole industrial player acting at international level at all stages in the nuclear cycle.

The market covered by the Clean-up business unit is almost exclusively French (less than 2% export).

It represents nearly 660 million euros per year. The Clean-up business unit is an industry leader in France, with a market share of almost 27%.

The high level of competition and the strong pressure on prices have led the Clean-up business unit to review its commercial positioning in order to develop global services with strong added value, to capitalize on the experience and skills of its 7 companies.