AREVA Inaugurates French Uranium Enrichment Plant

French Prime Minister François Fillon  and AREVA CEO Anne Lauvergeon on Monday inaugurated the first centrifuge cascade of the €3 billion Georges Besse II uranium enrichment plant, where production is set to commence this year.

The facility is similar to Eagle Rock, an enrichment facility AREVA is planning to build at a site near Idaho Falls, Idaho. Construction on the plant, located on the Tricastin nuclear site in Southern France, began less than three years ago. It will comprise two enrichment units and will produce 7.5 million SWUs (separative work units) by the time it reaches full capacity in 2016.

The plant, based on “ultra centrifuge technology,” will replace AREVA’s existing Georges Besse enrichment plant at Tricastin and use “50 times less electricity than gaseous diffusion used until now in France,” AREVA said.

AREVA said in a statement that the project would enhance its position as a “major player” on the world’s enrichment market, of which it has almost a 25% share.

Source: AREVA