The nuclear nine

The 3.8 km2 Sellafield site on the Cumbrian coast produces nuclear fuel for electricity as well as stores nuclear waste from several countries a
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Areva works heavily in nuclear power. It was Areva which introduced the European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR).

The EPR is a third generation reactor and offers safe, inexpensive electrical supply with an environmentally friendly method. The nuclear operations of Areva include a front end division, involved in uranium ore explorations, mining, concentration, conversion and enrichment and nuclear fuel design.

There is also a reactor and services division, dealing with the design and construction of nuclear reactors and other non-CO2 emitting power generation systems, supplying products and services for nuclear power plant maintenance and upgrades and operations. The final division of the firm’s nuclear power arm is the back end division, involving treatment and recycling of used fuel, clean-up of nuclear facilities and nuclear logistics.

The firm as a whole has a sales revenue of 13,160 million euros as of December 2008.

It employs 75,414 employees and has a net income of 589 million euros. Siemens retains 34% of the shares of Areva’s subsidiary Areva NP, which was in charge of building the ERP.

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Japan Steel Works currently makes large steel containment vessels for nuclear power plant reactors. The firm was founded in 1907 with the goal of domestic weapons production in Japan. After World War II the company turned to steel manufacturing and machinery development and turned its hand to heavy industries such as power generation.

Among the nuclear power plant components that the firms offers are reactor and steam generator components, turbo generator rotor shafts, turbine rotor shafts, turbo-generator rotor shafts and turbine castings. It also offers the reactor vessels and heat exchanger tanks.

The company has three production bases, in Muroran, Hiroshima and Yokohama, all in Japan.

The Muroran plant is where the heavy industrial products are produced and the factory boasts a 14,000 tonne hydraulic press and a 100 tonne electro slag re-melting furnace. It was also the company’s first plant.