Organizations reach agreements on Marcoule decommissioning plan

AREVA and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, known locally as the CEA, have reached agreements regarding the dismantling of the Marcoule Nuclear Center in France.

“Our continued collaboration with the CEA at Marcoule offers a sound basis for developing our expertise in dismantling,” Guillaume Dureau, AREVA's director of the Back End Business Group, said. “A hotbed of innovation in the sector, the CEA’s center at Marcoule hosts some of Europe's largest dismantling projects, those for which AREVA will remain fully mobilized.”

The company states the scope of work support in these agreements will allow the local dismantling and service teams to enhance their capabilities, and that this project will establish approximately 50 positions in site work and engineering. The contracts facilitate a working period between 2016 and 2020.

The Marcoule site ceased plutonium production in 1993, according to a timeline from AREVA and in 2000 old waste recovery and conditioning activities initiated. According to the company, AREVA has been working with the CEA in cleanup activity at the facility since 2006. Under these agreements, the company will be working in the recovery and reconditioning legacy waste materials, effluent treatment and other decommissioning activity.