Areva signs equipment contract for Brazil's Angra 3

Tuesday, 6 January 2015

Areva has signed a contract with the Brazilian utility Eletrobrás Eletronuclear to supply additional mechanical and electrical equipment to unit 3 of the Angra nuclear power plant.

ETN, which is part of the state-controlled Eletrobrás utility, said in September it expects Angra 3 to enter commercial operation in 2018.

The newly signed contract, worth about €75 million ($89 million), includes, "in particular", diesel engines, electrical appliances and controls, as well as equipment for used fuel storage, Areva said today.

The agreement follows a contract signed in November 2013 and worth €1.25 billion ($1.49 billion) for the completion of the Angra 3 reactor, which is in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Areva is supplying engineering services as well as the components and the digital instrumentation and control (I&C) system for the reactor. The French company also provides assistance in the supervision of the installation works and the commissioning activities.

"This new contract demonstrates ETN's confidence in Areva and reflects the excellent relations that have been developed between our two companies for more than 40 years as part of the Angra 2 and Angra 3 projects," said Philippe Samama, senior executive vice-president of Areva's Reactors and Services Business Group.

Located at the Angra site are two pressurized water reactors (PWRs) - Angra 1, which has an output of 640 MWe and was connected to the grid in 1985, and Angra 2, which has an output of 1350 MWe and was connected to the grid in 2001.

First concrete for Angra 3, which will be a 1405 MWe PWR, was in June 2010, closely following the construction licence from the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN). The plant was expected in operation at the end of 2015 after 66 months.

In addition to the November 2013 contract with Areva, CNEN in February 2014 awarded two Brazilian consortia installation contracts - one for electro-mechanical assembly associated with the reactor's primary system, valued at around BRL 1.31 billion ($640 million) and another for secondary-side work, estimated at BRL 1.67 billion ($816 million).

The Angra 3 project has a long history. Construction originally started in 1984 on a PWR designed by German company KWU, but this faltered two years later. At that stage some 70% of the plant's equipment was said to have already been purchased and delivered to the site. A return to construction was approved in 2007, and an industrial agreement for the unit's completion was signed with Areva in December 2008.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News