AREVA, through Framatome ANP,* supported PSEG Nuclear's Salem unit 1 record outage, which was completed in twenty-five days, six hours and three minutes - the industry's shortest refueling outage involving reactor vessel head replacement.
AREVA was responsible for the reactor vessel head replacement, refueling services, in-service inspection, and pump and motor services. These services were provided under an ongoing strategic alliance agreement signed between the two companies in 2002.
The Salem unit was returned to service on November 6, ten days ahead of schedule, beating the twenty-nine day world record by four days and the thirty-two day U.S record by seven days. The previous world record was held by ASCO 2 in Spain and the U.S record by Ginna in New York. These two previous record outages also involved AREVA's support.
Both Salem units are 1,150 megawatt pressurized water reactors located in Salem County, N.J. AREVA was responsible for the reactor vessel head replacement at Salem unit 2 during the spring 2005 outage and supplied the replacement reactor vessel heads for both Salem units. The group has an order for replacement steam generators for unit 2 to be delivered in 2007.
To date, AREVA has delivered eleven replacement vessel heads and installed sixteen replacement vessel heads in the U.S. With fifty-one similar replacement vessel heads delivered worldwide and eleven more currently under fabrication, AREVA has achieved global excellence in meeting scheduled delivery and in installing nuclear equipment.
11/29/2005