Enhancing Performance of Nuclear Fuel

Framatome ANP is celebrating its first birthday. I am pleased that our customers already are reaping the benefits of our new company. For instance, we recently received an order from Vattenfall to supply reload fuel for both PWR and BWR plants in Sweden, and we are working on a contract to provide lead assemblies with M5™ cladding for a Combustion Engineering-designed plant in the US. As these examples demonstrate, the integration of resources and practices resulted in a vast array of innovative products and services for utilities worldwide. By its performance and price, nuclear fuel contributes directly to the reduction of Kwh production cost. This is why utilities, particularly those challenged by electricity market deregulation, continuously seek to further increase burnup and decrease fuel prices.

Framatome ANP has responded to these utility needs by improving the performance of our fuel products. The merger between the Siemens and Framatome teams was a key factor in improving our ability to help utilities meet their economic and operational goals by enhancing our products and lowering costs. We have expanded our capabilities to provide fuel for BWRs and PWRs supplied by other vendors. To date, we have provided fuel and fuel-related services to utilities in Europe, the US, China, Japan, Taiwan, South America and South Africa, and are working to help even more utilities meet their nuclear power generation goals.