USA: AREVA NP Signs Multimillion-dollar Contract to Provide Equipment at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station

AREVA NP signed a multimillion-dollar contract to supply and replace 12 low-pressure feedwater heaters at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Tonopah, Ariz. These components help to increase the performance of a nuclear energy facility by pre-heating water used in the steam generator.

AREVA NP will lead a team that includes SPX and Barnhart to design, manufacture, prepare and install the feedwater heaters. Pre-outage work for the replacements begins in spring 2018, with the maintenance outages occurring between 2019 and 2025.

“AREVA NP teams in the United States have decades of experience with American utilities in successfully manufacturing, delivering and replacing major components, like these feedwater heaters,” said Nicolas Maes, Senior Executive Vice President of the Installed Base Business Unit at AREVA NP. “Our teams develop multiple innovative solutions that contribute to continuous, efficient and effective operations, a major stake to our customers.”

Earlier this year, AREVA NP delivered 54 in-core detector assemblies to Palo Verde as part of another initiative to increase the facility’s efficiency. In-core detector assemblies provide operators with the ability to enhance reactor operation through continuous, real-time monitoring of core conditions. Two additional deliveries, each of 53 in-core detector assemblies, are scheduled for 2017 and 2018.

The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station’s three pressurized water reactors are capable of generating more than 4,000 megawatts per year and 32.5 million megawatt-hours of low-carbon electricity for approximately 4 million people in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.