Nuclear Energy - Advanced Reactors

Back End Services – Spent Fuel

Orano Federal Services has and can provide access to an extensive experience base of U.S. management practices focused on spent nuclear fuel and high level waste through our decades-long history of supporting: spent nuclear fuel R&D projects, cleanup projects, and interim storage projects for DOE; interim storage of commercial spent nuclear fuel through Orano TN and Interim Storage Partners; spent fuel and waste transportation services through Orano TN; and nuclear component fabrication activities through Orano TN-F. Orano Federal Services also provides access to Orano’s global experiences in: recycling of spent nuclear fuel at its La Hague recycling plant in France; advanced waste treatment processes at its La Hague, MELOX, Tricastin, and Marcoule facilities; and transportation and logistics through Orano Nuclear Packages and Services. Discover more about these services.

Only Orano is able to offer a complete and diverse set of options to solve the back end of the fuel cycle for existing and advanced reactors, regardless of fuel type (e.g,, oxides, metals, molten salts, TRISO, etc.). This complete and diverse sets of options cover:

• Wet and/or Dry Interim Storage. Orano has extensive experience designing and optimizing spent fuel pools (including the largest one in the world at La Hague) and spent fuel racks for diverse fuel types, while also accounting for the storage of damaged fuels. Orano also has extensive experience with designing, optimizing, and licensing dry interim storage systems and facilities for diverse fuel types, including the highest density storage system NUHOMS™ Matrix and the industry’s highest heat load capacity canister the EOS. Orano’s experience includes dry storage systems above or below grade, welded and bolted storage systems, on-site or off-site interim storage facilities, and the soon to be released “smart” systems with internal health monitoring devices.

• Transportation. Orano provides the full suite of transportation and logistics services. Orano offers our customers safe, secure transport by rail, barge, or truck. Orano has a fleet of transportation casks designed for a variety of different fuels, including PWR and BWR, accident tolerant, high burnup, MOX, and other unique fuel types. Orano also has casks designed to transport HLW, LLW, UF₆ (LEU and HALEU), yellow cake, and a wide variety of fresh fuels. Orano also operates transload facilities in Valognes, France dedicated to transferring transportation casks from rail to truck and in Cherbourg, France dedicated to transferring transportation casks from truck to ship.

• Conditioning of Spent Fuel and High/Low Level Wastes. Orano provides services or can design facilities optimized to treat spent fuel and HLW in preparation for safe interim storage and/or disposal. This includes processes to vitrify and solidify materials, including a Dem & Melt process for vitrifying wastes within a drum. In addition, Orano can provide chemical or mechanical treatment processes for the stabilization of fuel and offers the capability to provide a variety of filler materials to cask systems for, for example, moderator exclusion purposes.

• Consolidated Interim Storage. Orano is a member of the Interim Storage Partnership – a joint venture with Waste Control Specialists in Texas – that provides an opportunity for extended consolidated interim storage of spent nuclear fuel while awaiting completion of a repository. This facility offers customers the opportunity to clear sites of spent nuclear fuel, while providing optimized aging management activities that ensure safe and secure extended interim storage. Orano has experience and expertise preparing De-Inventory Plans as an industry advisor to the DOE for stranded spent nuclear fuel at shutdown commercial nuclear sites. These plans provide the DOE with information that it can use for planning options with decision-makers on the design of an integrated nuclear waste management disposition system that will someday see stranded spent nuclear fuel moved to either consolidated interim storage or to a permanent repository. We also are the prime contractor for the High Burnup Fuel project, an R&D program to obtain confirmation data for long term storage for high burnup fuel.

• Recycling Spent fuel. Orano provides the opportunity to reprocess a variety of spent nuclear fuel types at the world’s largest reprocessing facility, La Hague. The reprocessing of the spent nuclear fuel provides the opportunity for production of fuel from the recycled constituents and receipt of a standardized and stable robust waste form suited for disposal in any medium.

• Material Control & Accountability. As part of all of the above offerings, Orano includes state-of-the-art modern MC&A controls including development of a block chain ledger tracking system.

Orano's La Hague used fuel storage pool.

Front End Services – HALEU

Orano is currently collaborating with advanced reactor developers and DOE to leverage our expertise with all fuel types including the next generation of nuclear fuel – high-assay, low enriched uranium (HALEU). Current advanced reactor technologies are based on gas-cooled, liquid metal, or molten salt designs, many of which require HALEU in the highest enrichment category. Utilizing higher enrichment fuel allows these next generation reactor technologies to achieve improved efficiencies and longer core lifetimes.  Orano can be a long-term supplier of HALEU, logistics, or other solutions in this new market.

Remote Operations and Maintenance

Whenever you design and build a nuclear facility, you integrate maintenance into the design. WE do this on all of our nuclear facilities and it’s critical for the facility to operate well. Using our operating facilities globally, we will translate this robotics experience in our existing facilities. We will integrate this into the advanced reactors..

Orano’s experience in remote and robotic tooling and maintenance activity is extensive within our global nuclear facilities. Orano Federal Services has staff who are trained to integrate this methodology into U.S. advanced reactor designs from expertise at La Hague – a world class demonstration of back end storage and recycling solutions.

Fabrication

Orano TN, through its TN Fabrication division, is a leading manufacturer of custom fabricated products and equipment for the nuclear industry, where specialized precision welding and machining are essential. We have a 30-year record of leadership and innovation in nuclear material packaging and are a proven fabricator of products for the safe storage and transport of spent nuclear fuel. We are well- known for our manufacture of custom nuclear transportation and storage systems, including:

• Dry-Shielded Canisters

• PWR and BWR fuel assembly packages

• UO2 powder or pellet packages

• Transfer Casks

• Radioactive Liquid transportation vessels

The state-of-the-art Orano TN facility in Kernersville, NC has 150,000 ft² of manufacturing space and a 40-ton crane capacity. All welders and welding procedures are qualified to ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel (B&PV) Code Section IX and AWS. In-house NDE inspectors (Level III & II) are qualified through AWS (CWI) and ASNT-TC-1A.

Orano also provides design, analysis, testing, and licensing support for numerous Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Licensed packages including the NUHOMS® suite of dry fuel storage products and TRUPACT-III, TRUPACT-II, HalfPACT, and RH-72B, packages.

TNF is the Center of Excellence for DSC Fabrication in the U.S., specializing in the EOS and 61BTH systems.

Packaging and Transportation

Packaging. Orano has a proven track record of providing safe and efficient packaging and transportation services to DOE and commercial projects from over 25 years of experience. We:

• Provide the nuclear industry with significant experience, lessons learned, and a depth of resources in packaging design, analysis, testing, licensing, and fabrication. Our expertise includes the ability to reach-back to Orano international divisions to secure additional innovative technologies.

• Are an established market leader through a commitment to technology development, innovation, and a strong focus on customer service and delivery

• Have expertise in the analytical simulation and physical testing of radioactive material packages to demonstrate compliance with all IAEA, NRC, DOE, and DOT regulations, requirements, and standards

• Provide design, analysis, and fabrication of ancillary handling equipment, tie-down systems, and leak testing hardware for inte­grated packaging solutions

Key packages completed include the Hanford Un-Irradiated Fuel Package, Battelle Research Reactor Package, TRUPACT-III Contact-Handled Transuranic Waste (CH-TRU) Transportation Package, and the Remote-Handled Transuranic Waste Transportation Package RH-72B. All work is performed under the Orano Federal Services 10 CFR 71 Subpart H QA Program.

In the last 25 years Orano has secured over 20 Certificates of Compliance (CoC) for NRC Type AF and Type B radioactive material packaging designs.

Transportation. Orano provides transportation services for spent fuel, plutonium oxide, mixed oxide fuel, and low and high-level waste. This highly specialized activity requiring sophisticated resources, which, corporately, we have been performing this for more than 50 years. Orano Federal Services integrated this corporate expertise to offer our customers safe and proven solutions based on a fleet of dedicated packaging, equipment and means of road, rail, and barge transportation. For over 10 years Orano has provided packaging and transportation services to the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managing all aspects of their programs to handle, package, transport, and recycle nuclear fuel and high-level waste. At the INL, Orano has accomplished between 1,000 and 2,000 hazardous and radioactive shipments each year without any non-conformance reports issued against the Orano packaging and transportation program. Orano continually provides exemplary packaging and transportation services while reducing project risk.