New NP, a subsidiary of AREVA NP, becomes Framatome, a company whose capital is owned by the EDF group (75.5%), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI – 19.5%) and Assystem (5%). Framatome confirms its recognized manufacturer’s ambition: being the supplier of safe and competitive nuclear solutions, supporting its electrical utility customers all over the world.
I would like to take a few minutes to provide an update on where AREVA NP is in our research and development of the next evolution of nuclear fuel – our Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (EATF) program. Over the past few months, we have reached several milestones in the drive to place lead fuel rods (LFR) into a U.S. commercial reactor in early 2019.
In the aftermath of the 2011 accident at Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear industry undertook a worldwide research and development effort to further increase fuel margins in the case of a severe accident, leading to the development of different enhanced accident tolerant fuel (EATF) programs.
Guest post by Jeff Reed, AREVA NP US EATF Program Manager AREVA NP recently announced our partnership with Southern Nuclear to load advanced fuel assemblies with Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (EATF) features in Georgia’s Vogtle Unit 2. This announcement was a key milestone for AREVA NP, its employees and its partners in support of the…
AREVA NP is working in many areas of fuel development. Our priority is to improve the economics of today’s fuel. We introduced two new fuel types: GAIA for 17×17 fuel and ATRIUM 11 for boiling water reactors. ATRIUM 11 has an 11×11 array which distributes power better than the 10×10 array of fuel rods.