Areva - Reference Document 2016

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BUSINESS OVERVIEW

MARKETS FOR NUCLEAR POWER AND RENEWABLE ENERGIES

OVERVIEW AND STRATEGY OF THE GROUP

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6.1.

6.3.

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6.3.1. Overview 6.3.2. Strategy

6.1.1. Nuclear power and renewable energies in the global energy landscape

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6.3.3. Operating organization

6.1.2. Nuclear energy markets 6.1.3. Renewable energies markets

OPERATIONS

6.4.

6.4.1. NewCo’s Operations 6.4.2. AREVA NP operations

AREVA’S CUSTOMERS AND SUPPLIERS

6.2.

6.2.1. Customers 6.2.2. Suppliers

6.4.3. Other operations

A FEW FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF NUCLEAR POWER

meeting nuclear safety requirements. The three main components needed to sustain, control and cool the fission process in the reactor core are fuel, a moderator and a coolant. The combination of these three components determines the reactor type or model. Several combinations have been tested, but only a few of them have gone beyond the prototype stage to commercial operation. A heat source and a cooling source Like all other thermal power plants, a nuclear power plant has a heat source (the nuclear steam supply systemwith its fuel core and heat exchangers) and a cooling source designed to condense steam after it has passed through the turbine. That is why power plants are usually built near the sea or a river – the water is used to cool the steam. Some power plants are also equipped with cooling towers in which cooling water is dispersed like rain so that it will evaporate, improving the efficiency of cooling and reducing the environmental impacts (reduced withdrawal of water and elimination of thermal releases to rivers). A moderator and a coolant During the fission process, neutrons are released at very high speed. As they strike light atoms (hydrogen contained in water) and slow down, they react much more with the uranium-235 atoms. That is how “thermal neutron” or “slow” reactors function. The level of uranium-235 enrichment required for the chain reaction is much lower than for “fast” reactors. In water reactors, the water is used as a moderator, i.e. to slow the neutrons released by nuclear fission, but it also serves as a coolant, i.e. the fluid that circulates in the reactor core to extract heat.

Since the beginning of this century, energy has been a centerpiece of many of our society’s challenges, which may be summed up as the need to continue to produce and consume energy without threatening the climate. If the share of fossil fuels in the global energy mix is to be reduced from its current level of more than 80%, low-carbon energy sources that do not affect the climate must be developed, including nuclear power, capable of producing massive quantities of electricity on demand, and renewable energies. Using fission energy in nuclear power plants A nuclear power plant is an electric generating station with one or more reactors. Like all conventional thermal power plants, each reactor unit consists of a steam supply system that converts water into steam, among other things. The steam drives a turbine, which in turn drives a generator, producing electricity. A “nuclear reactor” is an industrial facility that produces heat from the energy released by the fission of combustible atoms during a controlled chain reaction. A “nuclear steam supply system” is the combination of equipment used to produce steam from fission energy. A “nuclear island” is the system encompassing the nuclear steam supply system and the fuel-related facilities, as well as the equipment required for the system’s operation and safety. A “conventional island” consists of the alternating current turbogenerator coupled to the nuclear island, along with the equipment required for its operation. A nuclear power plant thus consists primarily of a nuclear island and a conventional island. The reactor is enclosed in a solid, leaktight building

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2016 AREVA REFERENCE DOCUMENT