Fuel

The Fuel business unit designs, manufactures and sells nuclear fuel assemblies for pressurized water reactors (PWR), boiling water reactors (BWR), and research reactors.

After enrichment, uranium hexafluoride is transformed into uranium oxide. This black powder is then compressed into small pellets, loaded into long metallic tubes which look like "rods". These are then assembled in order to form fuel assemblies.

A very high-technology product, nuclear fuel supplies the reactor unit in a nuclear power station and must be regularly renewed. The business unit supplies 3 types of fuel:

standard fuel made up of enriched natural uranium

MOX fuel from a base of plutonium and uranium

URE fuel: uranium obtained from spent fuel reprocessing.

With almost 40% market share, the group is the world leader in the manufacture of fuel for PWR and BWR reactors.

Moreover, all of the sites are committed to an ISO 14001 certification process. All of the group's European sites are certified.

Customers

The Fuel business unit's customers are the world's leading power utilities, among which:

EDF: to supply assembly reloads and MOX UO2 assembly

Electrabel: for several fuel reloads at 5 of Belgium's 7 reactors

CGNPC (China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp.): for the supply of fuel assemblies and reloads for the first 2 EPR reactors to be sold in China

The city of Baotou (China): for assistance in the construction of PWR assemblies

Goesgen (Switzerland): for the supply of ERU assembly reloads.

The business unit mainly operates under multi-year contracts covering one or more reactors. These contracts usually include services such as transportation, handling and technical support.

Locations

The Fuel business unit is present in France, Belgium, Germany and the United States through its 3 business lines:

"Design and Sales", based in Germany, France and the United States

"Zirconium", with 5 plants in France and 1 in Germany

"Fuel Fabrication", organized into 8 plant sites (3 in the United States and 5 in Europe).

The business unit also includes 2 other entities:

Cerca, which has plants in France, fabricates and sells fuel elements for research reactors

Federal Operations, located in the United States, provides nuclear engineering services to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and other federal government programs.

Within the AREVA group, Fuel operations are handled by AREVA NP.