Areva - Reference Document 2016

11

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS, PATENTS AND LICENSES

11.1 Research and Development

2) Support to the la Hague and MELOX plants to broaden the range of fuel treated The design and development of equipment and processes making good progress, in particular to adapt the facilities to the treatment of new types of fuel (high-burnup UOx fuel, MOX fuel, fuel from research reactors, most notably silicide fuel, etc.). The project for a new head-end facility to the plant to treat special fuels, the TCP, is part of that objective. This technology development will enable AREVA to diversify its commercial offering and further broaden the range of products that it can treat. 3) Search for waste processing solutions to broaden the range of waste processed and/or reduce the quantities of final waste produced The focus is on reducing final waste volumes, on waste packaging technologies, and on work supporting Andra demonstrations of the performance of the geological repository under construction for waste from treatment and recycling operations. In particular, R&D spending continues on the cold crucible technology now in industrial operation at la Hague, with the goal of having a fully optimized production plant that can treat a wider range of solutions while boosting performance for solutions currently treated with the hot crucible vitrification technology. A program to develop a new thermal treatment technology for long-lived waste continues in partnership with Andra and the CEA. Initial technology tests on a full-scale mockup were successful. Another R&D programon a new vitrification technology was kicked off in 2016 in partnership with the CEA and Andra. The goal is to develop a compact process specific to the requirements of dismantling waste. R&D also focuses on the development of computer models, particularly in the vitrification field, to optimize laboratory and full-scale pilot test programs, and on waste radiolysis models to acquire more information about the waste package and facilitate its acceptance for final disposal. 4) Multi-recycling: planning for the future AREVA is working in partnership with EDF and the CEA to define future industrial scenarios for the fuel cycle and reactors. In particular, the Recycling Business Unit is funding R&D work on fast neutron reactor fuel fabrication to be in a position longer term to supply fuel to the Astrid fast-neutron Gen IV reactor and to transition from the mono-recycling of plutonium to the multi-recycling of MOX. However, pending the advent of the fast-neutron fleet, brainstorming is underway to define UOx fuels that support multi-recycling. The needed adaptations to the industrial treatment and recycling platforms that will flow from these changes and related R&D developments are in the process of being defined. IMPROVING USED FUEL SHIPPING AND STORAGE AREVA develops casks for the shipment of nuclear materials and waste. The development work keeps pace with changes in regulations and in the materials being shipped (higher burnups, new designs, etc.). The new products are also designed to improve and reinforce services relating to the shipment and storage of radioactive materials and waste. The TN ® G3 is still under development and will eventually replace the current TN ® 12/13 shipping casks. These new casks will ship used fuel with a higher burnup and a shorter cooling time, giving our customers greater flexibility. R&D activities in nuclear logistics

To support the development of used fuel storage solutions, a new Extended Optimized Storage (EOS) canister is being developed. Its optimized design helps meet increased utility demand for disposal capacities. EOS development is accompanied by the development of a new “egg carton” concrete shell which enables storage on two levels. The new shell represents significant gains for our customers by reducing the footprint, allowing a wider range of fuel to be stored, and substantially facilitating cask lifecycle management operations, all while enhancing safety. AREVA is strengthening its position in the waste market by launching the development of its new TNMW product. The TNMW was designed for the nuclear power plant dismantling market. It can contain a wide variety of waste while at the same time offering a single solution for the combined functions of storage, shipping and disposal. These new product designs are based on the development, qualification and use of newmaterials for the functions of containment, neutron and radiation protection, heat dissipation and protection against the risk of cask drops. R&D activities in dismantling and services Research and development programs in this field aim for solutions which improve the safety and security of contact work, provide new services or open newmarkets, and enhance performance in every phase of our operations. They seek a competitive advantage over strong competitors in this segment, in France and internationally. A very large number of tools and innovative processes have thus been developed and are used operationally following the shortest possible time to market to respond dynamically to the needs of all target markets in the cleanup, dismantling and operator services field. Some typical examples of major and structuring developments which have been completed or implemented in 2016 are given below. In the field of safety, the multipurpose robotic investigation pack composed of the Riana™ land device and the Dorica™ aerial device received the WNE award in the Nuclear Safety category. The pack is being used by the intervention units of Dismantling and Services for the CEA Marcoule and is evolving with the inclusion of additional functionalities, such as an autonomous carrier module for Riana™. Also in the field of investigations, for the preparatory phases of contact work such as maintenance, dismantling or others, and to monitor operations, the Manuela™ tool used to reconstruct coupled radiological and spatial maps was demonstrated to our customers and has had its first commercial successes, particularly at EDF’s Fessenheim nuclear power station. Its deployment at other nuclear power stations and continued work for its qualification and industrialization are planned in 2017. In the cleanup field, the know-how and operating experience of AREVA in EDF fuel pool cleanup was applied to the development of a newmultipurpose tool, ICLAREC 2, which can performall of the operations needed for pool water clarification, surface skimming, particle suction and retrieval of items from the pool bottom. EDF qualified the equipment in 2016 and a patent application has been filed. In the waste area, the development of new processing and packaging processes targets specific markets, such as that for waste for which such processes do not currently exist. For example, the implementation of an AREVA-patented process to stabilizemercury created a new dispositionmethod that was inaugurated in 2016 to process SICN’s contaminatedmercury metal. Development work continues on new stabilization, encapsulation, destruction, decontamination and recycling solutions to

125

2016 AREVA REFERENCE DOCUMENT