AREVA TN said on Monday that it has struck a deal with Xcel Energy to provide dry-fuel storage-management services for the company’s Prairie Island and Monticello nuclear generating plants in Red Wing and Monticello, Minnesota, respectively.
“Our expertise in the back end of the fuel cycle enables us to safely manage fuel from the spent-fuel pool through its secure storage on site,” Greg Vesey, senior vice president of AREVA TN Americas, said. “This integrated approach offers utilities a long-term solution that is safe and cost-effective.”
Under this contract, AREVA will oversee the removal of nuclear fuel from the spent-fuel storage pool at Prairie Island and will manage its placement into storage casks. At the Monticello site, the company will be supplying 10 NUHOMS dry-fuel storage-system units beginning in 2017, and they will be working to place the used fuel into storage modules in 2018.
AREVA specializes in multiple areas of the nuclear energy industry, including the manufacture and design of nuclear reactors, fuel assemblies, components and storage casks for used fuel. The company said AREVA TN, the U.S.-based division, has loaded approximately 900 storage canisters across the country.
