Chinese Vice Premier visits COGEMA used fuel treatment plant at La Hague

6/8/2004
Press release
Chinese Vice Premier ZENG Peiyan, who is currently on an official visit to France, was today shown round COGEMA's used fuel treatment plant at La Hague. He was accompanied by Anne Lauvergeon, the Chairman of AREVA's Executive Board.

The Vice Premier and the Chinese delegation of officials and industrialists visited the main workshops in the UP3 plant including the transport cask unloading bay, the used fuel storage pools, the control room and the vitrified waste interim storage hall.

Mr. ZENG Peiyan stated that he was highly impressed by his visit to La Hague and that he was fully in favor of overall, lasting cooperation between China and France in the nuclear field.

Anne Lauvergeon expressed her delight at the "rewarding, long-standing cooperation between China and AREVA in the nuclear field". "Our group aims to take this partnership even further, and will be focusing on mining, engineering, and reactor component manufacture".

AREVA has 3,000 employees in China where it has been present for almost 20 years.

The group, through its subsidiary Framatome ANP, supplied the four reactors for the DAYA BAY and LING AO nuclear power plants, as well as equipment for the QINSHAN II and TIANWAN plants. AREVA has also successfully completed numerous technology transfers to Chinese industry. AREVA is now preparing to meet the country's new requirements as it pursues its nuclear program.

At the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, China's used fuel management policy is tending towards treatment and recycling, and the vitrification of final waste. The similar approaches between the two countries could augur well for Sino-French cooperation in the future.

AREVA is also continuing to expand its activities, opening several plants in China in the field of electricity transmission and distribution, through AREVA T&D, and in the connectors business through FCI.


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Investors Relations
Vincent Benoit
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vincent.benoit@areva.com
Frédéric Potelle
T: 33 1 44 83 72 49
frederic.potelle@areva.com