Plant safety: AREVA to deliver Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners for Japanese reactors

AREVA will equip the Japanese reactor fleet with one hundred of its Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners (PARs).

PARs are state-of-the-art passive safety devices used to prevent the build-up of hydrogen into reactor containment vessels so to preserve the integrity of the reactor. They are part of AREVA’s Safety Alliance offering, a comprehensive range of products and services that help utilities demonstrate and upgrade the safety of their nuclear plant fleets.

“AREVA leads the market in supplying passive safety devices for existing nuclear installations”, said Philippe Samama, AREVA’s Executive Vice President for the Installed Base Business Unit. “The interest in our product shows that it meets today’s utilities need to maximize plant safety”.

PARs do not require any operator intervention or power. They, therefore, continue to work even in the case of a station blackout. The devices are easily installed, and generate almost no operational or maintenance costs, as they use the catalytic oxidation to convert the hydrogen into harmless steam.

“PARs represent a major step forward in nuclear plant safety, and AREVA is proud to be driving this progress with its Safety Alliance Program”, added Samama.

To date, a total of 140 plants worldwide have been or will be equipped with AREVA’s PARs. Further orders have already been received this year and tenders to supply PARs to various nuclear power plants in Europe and Asia are currently underway.