Initial GB-II cascade undergoing tests

Testing of the first centrifuge cascade has begun at the Georges Besse II (GB-II) uranium enrichment plant in southern France, Areva announced. The cascade is scheduled to start operating by the end of this year.

 

The first cascade at GB-II (Image: Areva)

The company said that the modular design of the GB-II plant will allow the first cascade to operate while new centrifuge cascades are being installed and gradually brought online to supplement its production output, which is set to reach full capacity in 2016, two years earlier than initially scheduled.

 

François-Xavier Rouxel, executive vice president of Areva's enrichment business unit, commented: "This success confirms that the Georges Besse II project is on target and will allow Areva to strengthen its position as a leading figure on the global enrichment market, for which it provides nearly a quarter of all services."

 

The €3 billion ($4.7 billion) GB-II plant is based on 'ultra centrifuge technology' and will replace Areva's existing Georges Besse plant at Tricastin, which uses energy-intensive gas diffusion technology. Areva said that the GB-II project "represents one of the biggest industrial investments for the past decade in France."

 

In April 2007, the new plant received a licence to operate at up to 8.2 million SWU per year, enriching uranium up to a maximum of 6%. French prime minister François Fillon and Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon inaugurated the first centrifuge cascade at the GB-II plant in May 2009.

 

The GB-II plant will be owned and operated by Areva subsidiary Société d'Enrichissement du Tricastin (SET). The centrifuge machines are being manufactured and supplied by the Enrichment technology Company (ETC), a 50-50 joint venture between Areva and Urenco.

 

Minority stakes in SET are being offered to customers, and Suez took up 5% in 2008. In March 2009, two Japanese companies, Kansai and Sojitz Corp, jointly took up 2.5%, and in June Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) took a further 2.5%. Electricité de France (EdF), as principal customer, opted for a long-term contract instead, and in February 2009 it signed a €5 billion ($7.4 billion) enrichment contract with Areva. It runs over 17 years to 2025, corresponding with the amortisation of the new plant. In mid-2007, KHNP signed a long-term enrichment supply contract of over €1 billion ($1.5 billion) - described at that time as Areva's largest enrichment contract outside France.