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RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS, PATENTS AND LICENSES
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11.1 Research and Development
2) Support to the la Hague and MELOX plants to broaden the range
of fuel treated
The design and development of equipment and processes making good progress,
in particular to adapt the facilities to the treatment of new types of fuel (high-burnup
UOx fuel, MOX fuel, fuel from research reactors, most notably silicide fuel, etc.). The
project for a new head-end facility to the plant to treat special fuels, the TCP, is part
of that objective. This technology development will enable AREVA to diversify its
commercial offering and further broaden the range of products that it can treat.
3) Search for waste processing solutions to broaden the range of waste
processed and/or reduce the quantities of final waste produced
The focus is on reducing final waste volumes, on waste packaging technologies,
and on work supporting Andra demonstrations of the performance of the geological
repository under construction for waste from treatment and recycling operations.
In particular, R&D spending continues on the cold crucible technology now in
industrial operation at la Hague, with the goal of having a fully optimized production
plant that can treat a wider range of solutions while boosting performance for
solutions currently treated with the hot crucible vitrification technology. A program
to develop a new thermal treatment technology for long-lived waste continues in
partnership with Andra and the CEA. Initial technology tests on a full-scale mockup
were successful. Another R&D programon a new vitrification technology was kicked
off in 2016 in partnership with the CEA and Andra. The goal is to develop a compact
process specific to the requirements of dismantling waste.
R&D also focuses on the development of computer models, particularly in the
vitrification field, to optimize laboratory and full-scale pilot test programs, and on
waste radiolysis models to acquire more information about the waste package and
facilitate its acceptance for final disposal.
4) Multi-recycling: planning for the future
AREVA is working in partnership with EDF and the CEA to define future industrial
scenarios for the fuel cycle and reactors.
In particular, the Recycling Business Unit is funding R&D work on fast neutron
reactor fuel fabrication to be in a position longer term to supply fuel to the Astrid
fast-neutron Gen IV reactor and to transition from the mono-recycling of plutonium
to the multi-recycling of MOX.
However, pending the advent of the fast-neutron fleet, brainstorming is underway
to define UOx fuels that support multi-recycling.
The needed adaptations to the industrial treatment and recycling platforms that
will flow from these changes and related R&D developments are in the process
of being defined.
R&D activities in nuclear logistics
IMPROVING USED FUEL SHIPPING AND STORAGE
AREVA develops casks for the shipment of nuclear materials and waste. The
development work keeps pace with changes in regulations and in the materials
being shipped (higher burnups, new designs, etc.). The new products are also
designed to improve and reinforce services relating to the shipment and storage
of radioactive materials and waste.
The TN
®
G3 is still under development and will eventually replace the current
TN
®
12/13 shipping casks. These new casks will ship used fuel with a higher burnup
and a shorter cooling time, giving our customers greater flexibility.
To support the development of used fuel storage solutions, a new Extended
Optimized Storage (EOS) canister is being developed. Its optimized design
helps meet increased utility demand for disposal capacities. EOS development
is accompanied by the development of a new “egg carton” concrete shell which
enables storage on two levels. The new shell represents significant gains for our
customers by reducing the footprint, allowing a wider range of fuel to be stored, and
substantially facilitating cask lifecycle management operations, all while enhancing
safety.
AREVA is strengthening its position in the waste market by launching the
development of its new TNMW product. The TNMW was designed for the nuclear
power plant dismantling market. It can contain a wide variety of waste while at
the same time offering a single solution for the combined functions of storage,
shipping and disposal.
These new product designs are based on the development, qualification and use
of newmaterials for the functions of containment, neutron and radiation protection,
heat dissipation and protection against the risk of cask drops.
R&D activities in dismantling and services
Research and development programs in this field aim for solutions which improve
the safety and security of contact work, provide new services or open newmarkets,
and enhance performance in every phase of our operations. They seek a competitive
advantage over strong competitors in this segment, in France and internationally.
A very large number of tools and innovative processes have thus been developed
and are used operationally following the shortest possible time to market to
respond dynamically to the needs of all target markets in the cleanup, dismantling
and operator services field. Some typical examples of major and structuring
developments which have been completed or implemented in 2016 are given below.
In the field of safety, the multipurpose robotic investigation pack composed of the
Riana™ land device and the Dorica™ aerial device received the WNE award in
the Nuclear Safety category. The pack is being used by the intervention units of
Dismantling and Services for the CEA Marcoule and is evolving with the inclusion
of additional functionalities, such as an autonomous carrier module for Riana™.
Also in the field of investigations, for the preparatory phases of contact work such
as maintenance, dismantling or others, and to monitor operations, the Manuela™
tool used to reconstruct coupled radiological and spatial maps was demonstrated
to our customers and has had its first commercial successes, particularly at EDF’s
Fessenheim nuclear power station. Its deployment at other nuclear power stations
and continued work for its qualification and industrialization are planned in 2017.
In the cleanup field, the know-how and operating experience of AREVA in EDF fuel
pool cleanup was applied to the development of a newmultipurpose tool, ICLAREC
2, which can performall of the operations needed for pool water clarification, surface
skimming, particle suction and retrieval of items from the pool bottom. EDF qualified
the equipment in 2016 and a patent application has been filed.
In the waste area, the development of new processing and packaging processes
targets specific markets, such as that for waste for which such processes do not
currently exist. For example, the implementation of an AREVA-patented process to
stabilizemercury created a new dispositionmethod that was inaugurated in 2016 to
process SICN’s contaminatedmercury metal. Development work continues on new
stabilization, encapsulation, destruction, decontamination and recycling solutions to
2016 AREVA
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