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AREVA, New Brunswick Ink Deal for New Gen III Mid-Size Reactor

AREVA and the Canadian province of New Brunswick last week signed a letter of intent to develop a clean energy park near the Point Lepreau nuclear station. The project would include a midsize third-generation reactor—and it wouldn’t be a prototype, AREVA has reportedly said.

The New Brunswick clean energy park project is similar to concepts already in discussions in Ohio and California. The Piketon, Ohio, project, announced last year, is a partnership that includes Duke Energy, AREVA, USEC, UniStar Nuclear Energy, and the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative.

Earlier this year, AREVA and Fresno Nuclear Energy Group (FNEG) said they plan to develop a project involving one or possibly two AREVA EPR plants in the Fresno, Calif., area. The groups are expected to prepare an Early Site Permit and subsequent Combined License Application to for submittal to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

AREVA is involved in developing two midsize Generation III+ reactors: the 1,250-MW KERENA boiling water reactor and the 1,100-MW ATMEA1 pressurized water design. But as AREVA’s North America CEO, Jacques Besnainou, told the New Brunswick Business Journal last week, if the Canadian project moves forward and construction of a reactor begins around 2015, AREVA will have completed construction of third-generation-plus reactors in Finland, France, and China.

Sources: AREVA, New Brunswick Business Journal

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