POWER November 2015 - 14

ray, the French nuclear giant revealed this
September.
The new fuel design, the ATRIUM 11,
has been used to produce power at two
nuclear plants since April, though AREVA
declined to name the reactors. However,
the company told POWER that to date a
total of 40 lead fuel assemblies are operating
in five reactors in four countries. Including
the two in the U.S., they have also
been installed in Switzerland, Finland, and
Germany since 2012.
AREVA-a company that has designed
and manufactured fuel for both BWRs
and pressurized water reactors (PWRs)
for 40 years, but which also suffered
record losses in 2014-is determined
to return to profitability by refocusing
on its core nuclear power business. The
announcement marks a major milestone
for its fledgling lead fuel assembly design,
which it says will provide higher
intrinsic safety margins. AREVA is also
developing the GAIA fuel assembly de5.
New nuclear fuel design.
AREVA's Ken McKeown inspects an ATRIUM
11 fuel rod assembly bundle at the company's
fuel manufacturing facility in Richland,
Wash. Courtesy: AREVA
sign for PWRs in parallel with the ATRIUM
11. There is substantial interest in
both designs in Europe and in the U.S.,
the company said.
AREVA said that the fuel design improves
safety by reducing fuel operating
temperatures and peak cladding stress
under operation. " When engineers balance
the uranium loading and enrichment, the
economic benefit is a bonus, " said AREVA
spokesperson Curtis Roberts in September.
Additionally, the new design offers better
operational flexibility, which is valuable
for plants that have implemented power
uprates or optimized capacity factor operating
strategies, he said.
" Since it has the same external dimenThis
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sions, the ATRIUM 11 fuel design is installed
identically to the existing fuel design operating
in each reactor, " Roberts explained.
" The fuel burns typically for three cycles
and, following each cycle, post-irradiation
examinations have been completed showing
expected performance. "
The 16 lead fuel assemblies installed at
the two unnamed reactors were manufactured
at the company's Richland, Wash.,
facility (Figure 5). " The completion of
these real-life tests will allow delivery (in
full-scale quantities) of the ATRIUM 11 design
in 2017 in Europe, and 2019 in the
U.S., " said Roberts.
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POWER | November 2015
South Africa Puts First
Large IPP Project Online
South Africa reached a milestone this September
when it put online its first largescale
project owned by an independent
power producer (IPP). The inauguration of
the 335-MW Dedisa Peaking Power plant
located in Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern
Cape's Coega Industrial Development Zone,
marks a shift in the way electricity is pro
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POWER November 2015

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