Fukushima: AREVA/Veolia system successfully contributes to treating contaminated waters

The decontamination system co-developed by AREVA and Veolia Water* for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has just reached the milestone of 18 000 tons of highly-radioactive waters treated to-date, representing 15% of the accumulated volume.

Installed on the Fukushima site that was severely damaged following an earthquake and tsunami that hit the North-East of Japan in March, the system was designed, constructed, and launched in a record-short time (2 months) and is an essential element to stabilize the situation of the nuclear plants. It will improve the access of workers to strategic parts of the site, and allow TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) to re-circulate the waters that are used for cooling the reactors.

Constructed and commissioned by AREVA and Veolia experts, the system reduces the water radioactivity level by a factor of 10 000 and can treat up to 50 tons of contaminated waters per hour. These technologies have a proven track record in AREVA’s La Hague and Marcoule facilities and across hundreds of Veolia Water projects in the world.

All together, over 200 AREVA and 60 Veolia experts from France, Germany, the United States, Japan and Sweden were mobilized non-stop on this project.

^(*) Veolia Water is a part of the Veolia Environnement Group, a worldwide reference in environmental solutions. With nearly 3000 employees in Japan, Veolia Water is present in the country mainly in the management of water and wastewater projects, maintenance services and supply of water solutions and technologies.