Areva - Reference Document 2016

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RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS, PATENTS AND LICENSES

11.1 Research and Development

processmercury waste, asbestos waste, organic waste not accepted at the Centraco incineration facility, acidic waste, activated metals, powder waste and others. Designed to meet the needs of AREVA’s waste retrieval, cleanup and dismantling projects, some of these developments are also of great interest to our Asian partners and customers, particularly for the packaging of radioactive sludge and waste and for contact maintenance and cutting scenarios and technologies used in the cleanup of buildings and reactors. An important area for improvement is the inclusion of digital and connected tools in all operations in this field. Illustrations include the deployment of a product lifecycle management tool (PLM) to manage the configuration of facilities undergoing dismantling at the la Hague site, the use of touch tablets to monitor projects or to collect and use operating experience, and the development of tools to simulate equipment operations. In particular, a simulator for polar crane operations was developed in 2016 to train operators on this highly specialized equipment. The first presentations and training given in 2016met with success with the entire profession. The development of other modules is planned, and the prospects of using such a tool opens up opportunities for the sale of new services in this segment. R&D activities of AREVA Projects in the fuel cycle AREVA Projects is a key partner for the research and development programs of the business units. Specifically, AREVA Projects brings the engineering skills and expertise needed in the phases which precede the industrial implementation of products and processes resulting from R&D in the entities: feasibility studies and front-end engineering and design of innovative facilities; final development and qualification of simulation tools and of processes; products and equipment for use in the fuel cycle facilities of AREVA or its customers; and operator support. The Beaumont-Hague development and testing laboratory (HRB), an AREVA Projects technical center located near the la Hague recycling plant, houses the activities of the two main divisions: Technology, which develops specific tools and response scenarios and also develops and qualifies mechanical equipment; and Chemistry, which deals with a broad range of topics, including the development and qualification of chemical engineering equipment and of waste treatment and packaging processes (cementation, vitrification, drying, etc.) for AREVA’s different entities.

p adapting to changes in nuclear fleet operating conditions, whether for the cladding or structural materials (new alloys for greater resistance to corrosion and deformation) or for the fuel itself (advanced microstructures to reduce the release of fission gases at high burnups); p responding to questions from the safety authorities concerning fuel behavior in accident situations, in particular during an earthquake, requiring the development of new methods in an environment of changing safety standards and of new accident-tolerant fuel concepts (ATF); p developing advanced codes and related methods for PWR and BWR fuel incorporating the neutronics, thermos-hydraulics and thermos-mechanics of the fuel rod; p working with scientific partners, notably the CEA, to improve the modeling of physical phenomena occurring in the fuel during irradiation, and integrating these models into advanced simulation software. AREVA continues to develop a new generation of more robust fuel assemblies with enhanced performance and safety margins for boiling water reactors (BWR) and pressurized water reactors (PWR), called Atrium™11 and Gaia respectively: p following the first Atrium TM 11 test assemblies, now in their fourth irradiation cycle in the core of the Gundremmingen reactor in Germany (RWE), irradiation continues on other assemblies loaded into the Leibstadt reactor in Switzerland (AXPO) in 2013 and the Olkiluoto 1 reactor in Finland (TVO) in 2014; p the first Gaia test assemblies delivered to the Vattenfall electric utility in Sweden completed their fourth irradiation cycle in the Ringhals 3 reactor core; p work to make Gaia test assemblies available in 2018 for EDF’s 14ft (N4) reactor made significant progress in 2016with the completion of mechanical and thermo- hydraulic tests on full-scale assembly mockups; p deployment of the Gaia and Atrium™11 technologies in the United States continues with the start of test assembly irradiation, initially by two U.S. utilities in 2015; p development work continued on various types of ATF cladding, including chromium-coated zirconium alloy cladding, as well as on a disruptive concept of SiC-SiCf composite cladding, notably with the introduction of the first test components in Switzerland’s Göesgen reactor in 2016. This development was the subject of a number of partnerships, in particular with the CEA, EDF and the U.S. DOE. R&D activities of AREVA NP in reactors and services Widening the range of light water reactors and supporting their deployment EPR REACTOR Work carried out in partnership with EDF to optimize the EPR reactor design’s economic performance was completed in 2014. This paves for the way for definition of an optimized design basis which the proposal and project teams may use to define adaptations needed to meet customer specifications. The start of the Hinkley Point C Project in the United Kingdom represents a culmination of this cooperation. AREVA NP’s R&D team mobilized to define and qualify the improvements made to this project, such as pumps with hydrodynamic seals that simplify the architecture of sealing systems in the event of a loss of electrical power, and a more compact instrumentation and control system.

R&D ACTIVITIES OF AREVA NP

R&D activities of AREVA NP in nuclear fuel

Improving nuclear fuel performance AREVA NP conducts ambitious research and development programs to adapt its products to its customers’ performance requirements, up to high burnup levels, with the goal of continually improving fuel reliability during operations and guaranteeing the highest level of safety. These research and development programs involve: p developing new fuel designs, in particular to optimize thermo-hydraulic performance and enhance operating robustness;

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2016 AREVA REFERENCE DOCUMENT