AREVA and nuclear waste treatment company Kurion are creating an alliance for nuclear waste decommissioning and remediation services for the US Department of Energy sites.
As a first step of their collaboration, the firms will create a joint venture for work related to the cleanup and closure of the DOE's Hanford site in Washington state. Hanford, which started operations in 1943, was used to produce plutonium until 1987 when its last reactor ceased operation. Since then Hanford's mission has been to clean up the site after decades of weapons production activities.
The goal of the AREVA-Kurion partnership is to provide innovative technology solutions for nuclear waste, particularly to meet the needs of nuclear facilities undergoing decommissioning and cleanup, an expanding market in the United States. The alliance will draw on AREVA's engineering and operational expertise and Kurion's proprietary technologies for nuclear waste management.
"AREVA has long been a global leader in nuclear waste processing services. With Kurion's proprietary technologies in robotics, waste separation and stabilization, a joint AREVA-Kurion team will be capable of solving nearly any nuclear waste management challenge," said Jacques Besnainou, Kurion president.
Photo: Aerial view of part of the Hanford site (credit: DOE)
