Ohio Facility to Starts Operations with AREVA Technology

Ohio Facility to Starts Operations with AREVA Technology

News out of Southern Ohio yesterday— AREVA announced the start-up of operations at a recently completed conversion facility at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site. Constructed by Uranium Disposition Services LLC, a joint venture of AREVA, EnergySolutions and Burns and Roe, the facility will use a proprietary AREVA process to perform conversion. The UDS partnership is also working on a sister plant across the state border in Paducah, Ky., which should be ready in the coming months.
These two facilities will be used to perform an valuable function for the nuclear energy. They will convert depleted uranium hexafluoride, commonly known as DUF6, into uranium oxide. Expected operate until 2037; the Portsmouth facility will convert 13,500 metric tons of DUF6 per year.
The conversion process is detailed in this graphic from the UDS site below:

As a world leader in the design and operations of DUF6 conversion facilities, AREVA supplied proven process technology based on our nuclear fuel conversion facilities operating in Richland, Wash., and Lingen, Germany.
AREVA North America CEO Jacques Besnainou said that this is “an important recognition of AREVA’s expertise in the construction and operation of safe, efficient nuclear facilities.”
For more information on this new facility and its positive impact for the nuclear industry and economy for Southern Ohio, read the full press release http://us.areva.com/scripts/home/publigen/content/templates/Show.asp?P=913&L=EN.