Areva - Reference Document 2016

06

BUSINESS OVERVIEW

6.4 Operations

NEW NP OPERATIONS

6.4.2.1.

6.4.2.1.1.

Fuel

brought together to achieve flawless design and fabrication quality, an absolute requirement. The Fuel business has three major areas of expertise: p fuel design: This brings into play neutronic, thermohydraulic and mechanical design codes and databases built on lessons learned frommany years of reactor operations. Fuel designs are referenced in reactor operating license applications, making the fuel designer one of the utility’smost important partners in its relations with its national or local safety authority; p zirconium and zirconium alloy production: This draws on expertise in chemical and metallurgical processes and technologies; p fuel assembly fabrication: This requires knowledge of chemistry; powder metallurgy; various assembly techniques, including advanced welding, mechanical systems andmachining; and numerous methods for non-destructive examination and physico-chemical analysis. The Fuel business also manufactures zirconium-based products and semi- finished products which may be sold, including to some competing fuel assembly fabricators. In addition, the Fuel Business Unit markets fuel-related engineering services, fabrication services and onsite services. Operations and highlights The streamlining and performance improvement of the production plants continued: p in Dessel, Belgium, the last fissile material present at the site was transferred to other sites of the group, and site dismantling continued towards the goal of completion in 2018; p in France, the transfer of themanufacturing of spacer grids and rod cluster control assemblies from the Pierrelatte site to the Romans plant began, with completion scheduled in 2017. Lastly, construction of the new emergency command center at the Romans plant in France was completed, in accordance with its safety commitments. Concerning the zirconium operations, a furnace exploded in the melting facility of the Ugine plant in France, with no injuries or environmental impacts but with an impact on 2016 production volumes. Elsewhere, the CAST joint venture in China with SGTC (a subsidiary of the Chinese nuclear group CNNC) continued to deliver cladding tubes to CJNF, also a subsidiary of CNNC, in China. Human and industrial resources The Fuel business is structured into several entities with facilities in Europe and the United States: p the Products and Technologies; Fuel Design; Sales, Contracts and Services; and Supply Chain Divisions; p the Components Operations Department, which includes all of themanufacturing processes for zirconiumproducts, from zircon ore to the finished products. It has five plants in France, each specialized in one aspect of zirconium metallurgy or forming, and two joint ventures, one in Japan and the other in China; p the Fuel Operations Department organized into five production sites, one in the United States and four in Europe, whichmainly supply US and European utilities. In Japan, a joint-venture production site serves the Japanese market; p Cerca’s operations in France, whichmainly involve the fabrication and sale of fuel elements for research reactors and of fuel targets made with enriched uranium.

Businesses The Fuel business designs, fabricates and markets fuel assemblies and provides fuel-related services for power generating stations with light water reactors (commonly called PWR for pressurized water reactors and BWR for boiling water reactors). In addition to conventional enriched natural uranium oxide fuel (UO 2 ), the Fuel business markets MOX fuel (a mixture of uranium and plutonium oxides) and enriched recycled uranium fuel (ERU – see Glossary ) containing fissile materials from the used fuel recycling process. MOX fuel fabrication is provided by the Recycling business (see Section 6.4.1.3.1. Recycling ).

PRINCIPAL STAGES IN FUEL ASSEMBLY FABRICATION FOR LIGHT WATER REACTORS

UF 6

Enriched

Fuel assembly

Cladding Rod fabrication Pellets

Reconversion

of enriched

UF

into UO

6

2

Upper rod assembly

Rods

Top nozzle

Skeleton

Guide thimble

Components

Mixing grid

Fuel rod

Grids

Nozzles

Guide thimbles

Bottom nozzle

Source:AREVA, PWR reactor system. Reactor safety is a function of several requirements:

p containment, in the nuclear safety sense, of radioactive products under both normal and accidental operating conditions;

p control of the chain reaction; and

p cooling of the reactor core. Fuel assemblies contribute to reactor safety by sealing fissile materials and radioactive fission products inside zirconiumalloy cladding, which forms the primary containment barrier. Once unloaded from the reactor, the fuel assembly must continue to provide containment of the fissile materials and fission products, allow for residual heat dissipation and fuel handling, even after having been stored for relatively long periods, and allow for treatment when the closed fuel cycle has been chosen. The number of assemblies periodically replaced simultaneously (every 12 to 24months) constitutes a fuel reload. The Fuel business has expertise in every aspect of the fuel design and fabrication process, from the production of zirconium and its alloys to fabrication of the final fuel assembly. A large number of high-level scientific and technical skills must be

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2016 AREVA REFERENCE DOCUMENT