AREVA to supply replacement once-through steam generators at Three Mile Island

1/3/2006
News brief

AREVA's joint subsidiary with Siemens, Framatome ANP, has been awarded a contract to design, fabricate and license two replacement once-through steam generators* for Unit 1 of Exelon Corporation's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

The design is referred to as the Enhanced Once-Through Steam Generator (E-OTSG) due to significant operability and reliability improvements and reduced maintenance costs. AREVA's Lynchburg, Va. location will undertake the design and licensing of the generators, while the fabrication will take place at AREVA's Chalon-Saint Marcel plant, close to Chalon sur Saône in France.

The replacement steam generators are scheduled for delivery at Three Mile Island in 2009 and will mark the second use of this design in the United States. AREVA also supplied replacement E-OTSGs for Entergy Corporation's Arkansas Nuclear One nuclear power plant near Russellville, Ark., earlier this year.

Three Mile Island, located in Middletown, Penn., is capable of producing 875 net megawatts of electrical power from the pressurized water reactor in Unit 1.

* The function of a steam generator in a nuclear power plant is to transfer the heat from the reactor cooling system to the turbine/electrical generation system. Water is passed through the steam generator, picks up heat and is eventually converted to steam.