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AREVA awarded contract to procure second set of U.S. EPR heavy forgings - July 25, 2007
Bethesda, Md., July 24, 2007 - AREVA Inc. today announced that it has entered into an agreement with AmerenUE to procure the second set of heavy forgings that could be used for one of the first potential new nuclear power plants in a planned U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor (U.S. EPR) fleet, should AmerenUE decide to build a new nuclear power plant.
“Let me stress that this order does not represent a decision to build a new nuclear power plant,” said Chuck Naslund, AmerenUE senior vice president and chief nuclear officer. “We are simply preserving the option to do so. By making this early investment to procure the long-lead-time materials necessary to construct a potential U.S. EPR, we ensure our ability to add additional, low-cost, baseload generation through new nuclear if we later choose to do so to meet the growing demand in our service area.”
“This order for the second set of 45 critical forgings reflects utility industry interest in deploying a fleet of highly standardized, advanced nuclear power plants that will provide Americans with reliable, emissions-free electricity,” said Tom Christopher, CEO of AREVA NP Inc. “As the world’s largest vertically integrated nuclear supplier, AREVA is well positioned to respond because we have an established supply chain infrastructure, which reduces the possibility of delays in the future caused by increased global demand for nuclear components.”
AREVA, through the UniStar Nuclear business model with Constellation Energy, is farther down the path of new plant construction certainty in the United States than anyone else. The two companies announced procurement agreements for the first set of heavy forgings for the U.S. EPR in August 2006. Because two other EPR units are already under construction in Europe, AREVA has the sufficiently completed detailed design and construction-ready documents for successful procurement of high-quality, long-lead-time materials.
The heavy forgings for the U.S. EPR will be produced at international facilities and then manufactured into final components. The first set of forgings has since begun to be poured, and completed forgings have already begun arriving at AREVA’s Chalon St. Marcel facility in France before fabrication into finished components.
The AREVA EPR is an evolutionary 1,600 MW pressurized water reactor design based on well-proven technology. It is the only Generation III+ design that is actually being built and incorporates significant improvements in safety and economics over previous technologies, providing lower total lifecycle costs and the greatest physical safety for 21st century scenarios.
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