Enrichment: ramp-up of the Georges Besse II on schedule

Georges Besse II, AREVA’s new enrichment plant inaugurated in December 2010, met a new milestone end of 2012 with more than 2.5 million separative work units (SWU) per year of installed production capacity reached, in line with the original project schedule.

Deployed over two separate units at the AREVA Tricastin site (France), the South and the North plants, Georges Besse II produced its first commercial SWU in 2011 using the centrifuge enrichment technology. With this technology, Georges Besse II offers the best guarantees in terms of technical reliability, energy saving and environmental impact.

Georges Besse II South plant is thus ramping up according to schedule, with on average two additional cascades commissioned every month. At the end of 2012, about 70% of the South plant is in production.

For the North plant, the civil engineering work and the Centrifuge Assembly Building were finalised and operational readiness testing was also completed. The North plant is expected to come on line in first quarter 2013.

Thanks to the modularity of the process, several cascades can be commissioned each month until the full production capacity of 7.5 million SWU is reached in 2016.

Guillaume Dureau, AREVA’s Senior Executive Vice President of the Front End business group, said: “The capacity milestone reached shows AREVA’s continuous commitment towards enrichment activities to ensure security of supply for its customers. This is also the result of AREVA teams’ total involvement to conduct and deliver its projects on time and on budget.”