Washington state fuel manufacturing facility celebrates 45 years of operation

AREVA, Inc.’s Operational Center of Excellence in Fuel Manufacturing in Richland, Washington, celebrated 45 years of operation this past week.

On Oct. 30, 1970, the site began its work in manufacturing fuel for nuclear plants. At the time, it was owned by the Jersey Nuclear Company; it employed 60 people. Now, the facility employs approximately 600 people across 40 buildings. The facility is capable of building fuel for pressurized water reactors (PWR) and boiling water reactors (BWR) on a global scale.

In 2009, the site was the first of its kind to receive site license renewal for 40 years from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

“Our facility has grown tremendously in the last 45 years, and today we are proud to supply about one-third of the U.S. market for nuclear fuel,” Ron Land, Richland site manager and senior vice president of AREVA’s Fuel business unit, U.S. region, said. “As we celebrate this milestone, we also recognize our employees’ skills and their dedication to their work, to operational excellence and to our strong safety culture.”

Staff at the Richland Facility collaborated with international experts in order to design the company’s GAIA and ATRIUMTM 11, AREVA’s most advanced fuel assemblies for PWR and BWR, respectively.