Orano USA - Building Up from 2020
"For Orano USA, 2020 was also a year of results—we kept our focus on performance, delivery, and safety for each other and our customers."
2020 challenged us in extraordinary ways as a nation, industry, and in our communities. Meeting those challenges required changing how we conduct business, how we conduct ourselves, and how we build on the diverse value unique to each of us, but combined
for the greater benefit of accomplishing what we set out to achieve.
For Orano USA, 2020 was also a year of results—we kept our focus on performance, delivery, and safety for each other and our customers. We accomplished a number of “firsts” and stepped up our innovative approach to doing reliable good work, in the right way, with transparency and cooperation.
One example is how we’re transforming the industry’s approach to safely and responsibly restore shutdown nuclear energy sites into land available for more economic development or community use. At Vermont Yankee, the ADP partners are carrying out the mission of dismantling the site structures and systems like clockwork, logging more than 100,000 safe working hours.
Image: Moving the Vermont Yankee reactor’s steam assembly for further segmentation.
Our highly skilled integrated workforce, using advanced tools and mechanized equipment, is on track to complete the accelerated decommissioning and clear away the site and its low-level waste in an industry record time of only 5 years.
To get this accelerated decommissioning job done safely and efficiently, we deployed some unique assets and new technology. Moving the higher activity low-level decommissioning waste (LLW) to disposal launched the first trip of our MP197HB transport cask. This robust, multi-purpose used fuel and LLW package has become a familiar sight as it safely rides the rails during its trek from Vermont to Andrews, Texas (watch the video). This is the same manner that we hope sooner than later will move the Vermont Yankee used fuel to the ISP consolidated interim storage facility we’re currently developing in Texas.
Image: Orano’s MP197HB transport cask containing Vermont Yankee decommissioning waste arrives for disposal at Waste Control Specialists in Texas.
ADP further extended its value to the industry when it closed the deal to take over the operating license of the shutdown Crystal River 3 facility and transition the site into Prompt DECON, reducing by decades the site’s decommissioning.
Orano’s decades of experience in decommissioning was further recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management Office with an award of a 10-year IDIQ contract for Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning and Removal (DD&R) with a total potential value of $3 billion in task orders. The accelerated cleanup of high-risk areas will reduce environmental liabilities in the DOE’s cleanup and closure mission, and potentially return land to more productive purposes.
As part of our vision to provide integrated Back End services to the nuclear energy industry, Orano and our partner Waste Control Specialists continued progressing the NRC licensing of our proposed Interim Storage Partners (ISP) consolidated interim storage facility in Texas for used nuclear fuel. The ISP license is on track to be issued in 2021. We expect the NRC to issue its final Environmental Impact Statement and Safety Evaluation Reports in mid-2021, shortly followed by issuance of ISP’s operating license.
Dry storage was another shining star for us in 2020. Our Field Services team executed flawless fuel loading campaigns at a number of operating and shutdown sites, including the complete defueling of the pool ahead of schedule at the shutdown Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station. This timely completion allowed the site to secure all of its used fuel at the ISFSI, reduce operating costs, and transition into decommissioning. Fort Calhoun was the third successful full pool offload by Orano, the most in the U.S. to date. All three offloads were completed ahead of target schedules—delivering significant savings and added value to our customers.
Our Field Services team capped an extraordinary 2020 with a record-setting used fuel loading campaign when it completed the transfer of the highest heat load used fuel canisters: eight NUHOMS EOS canisters containing 37 PWR assemblies averaging 45 kilowatts heat load per canister. The NUHOMS EOS system offers the highest heat load capacity in the industry and is the only high-capacity system on the market that has no additional testing requirements for loading up to its license limit of 50 kW. The system performed flawlessly in this record-setting campaign, including the fastest loading of a canister in the industry: going from pool to pad in only 47 hours.
Image: Orano’s high heat load, high-capacity EOS canister being placed on the transporter for horizontal transfer and loading.
2020 was also the year that harvested the fruits of our two-year investment to stand up our own state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, TN Fabrication, in North Carolina. The facility ramped up its production in 2020, allowing us to move all canister fabrication onshore to this U.S. facility while strengthening our team’s quality performance. During 2020, Orano completed and delivered on all customer commitments for NUHOMS dry storage systems—at double the production of 2019—working at two-thirds of the facility’s new capacity, with room to grow.
To power the U.S. fleet, we continued to reinforce our position as a stable, reliable supplier of uranium fuel materials. The market recognized our value proposition and rewarded us with a record year of term contracts for uranium, conversion and enrichment. Similarly, our spot market engagement was very active and helped meet numerous U.S. customer short-term needs, resulting in one of our best years in commodity trading.
In the nuclear medicine field, our Texas-based Orano Med and its partner RadioMedix advanced their development of AlphaMedix, our first alpha-emitter therapy, with the first in-human dose-escalation study. The drug is in clinical trials in the U.S., and is showing strong positive and encouraging results in treating patients with metastatic somatostatin receptor-positive neuroendocrine cancer tumors.
Across the board, Orano USA made significant progress on multiple fronts in our business, but what we value most are our continued customer relationships as a trusted provider and innovative partner.
In 2021, we will continue to execute on our strategy for delivery and growth, and to provide customer service and solutions at the top of our field.
For Orano USA, 2020 was also a year of results—we kept our focus on performance, delivery, and safety for each other and our customers. We accomplished a number of “firsts” and stepped up our innovative approach to doing reliable good work, in the right way, with transparency and cooperation.
One example is how we’re transforming the industry’s approach to safely and responsibly restore shutdown nuclear energy sites into land available for more economic development or community use. At Vermont Yankee, the ADP partners are carrying out the mission of dismantling the site structures and systems like clockwork, logging more than 100,000 safe working hours.
Image: Moving the Vermont Yankee reactor’s steam assembly for further segmentation.
Our highly skilled integrated workforce, using advanced tools and mechanized equipment, is on track to complete the accelerated decommissioning and clear away the site and its low-level waste in an industry record time of only 5 years.
To get this accelerated decommissioning job done safely and efficiently, we deployed some unique assets and new technology. Moving the higher activity low-level decommissioning waste (LLW) to disposal launched the first trip of our MP197HB transport cask. This robust, multi-purpose used fuel and LLW package has become a familiar sight as it safely rides the rails during its trek from Vermont to Andrews, Texas (watch the video). This is the same manner that we hope sooner than later will move the Vermont Yankee used fuel to the ISP consolidated interim storage facility we’re currently developing in Texas.
Image: Orano’s MP197HB transport cask containing Vermont Yankee decommissioning waste arrives for disposal at Waste Control Specialists in Texas.
ADP further extended its value to the industry when it closed the deal to take over the operating license of the shutdown Crystal River 3 facility and transition the site into Prompt DECON, reducing by decades the site’s decommissioning.
Orano’s decades of experience in decommissioning was further recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management Office with an award of a 10-year IDIQ contract for Nationwide Deactivation, Decommissioning and Removal (DD&R) with a total potential value of $3 billion in task orders. The accelerated cleanup of high-risk areas will reduce environmental liabilities in the DOE’s cleanup and closure mission, and potentially return land to more productive purposes.
As part of our vision to provide integrated Back End services to the nuclear energy industry, Orano and our partner Waste Control Specialists continued progressing the NRC licensing of our proposed Interim Storage Partners (ISP) consolidated interim storage facility in Texas for used nuclear fuel. The ISP license is on track to be issued in 2021. We expect the NRC to issue its final Environmental Impact Statement and Safety Evaluation Reports in mid-2021, shortly followed by issuance of ISP’s operating license.
Dry storage was another shining star for us in 2020. Our Field Services team executed flawless fuel loading campaigns at a number of operating and shutdown sites, including the complete defueling of the pool ahead of schedule at the shutdown Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station. This timely completion allowed the site to secure all of its used fuel at the ISFSI, reduce operating costs, and transition into decommissioning. Fort Calhoun was the third successful full pool offload by Orano, the most in the U.S. to date. All three offloads were completed ahead of target schedules—delivering significant savings and added value to our customers.
Our Field Services team capped an extraordinary 2020 with a record-setting used fuel loading campaign when it completed the transfer of the highest heat load used fuel canisters: eight NUHOMS EOS canisters containing 37 PWR assemblies averaging 45 kilowatts heat load per canister. The NUHOMS EOS system offers the highest heat load capacity in the industry and is the only high-capacity system on the market that has no additional testing requirements for loading up to its license limit of 50 kW. The system performed flawlessly in this record-setting campaign, including the fastest loading of a canister in the industry: going from pool to pad in only 47 hours.
Image: Orano’s high heat load, high-capacity EOS canister being placed on the transporter for horizontal transfer and loading.
2020 was also the year that harvested the fruits of our two-year investment to stand up our own state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, TN Fabrication, in North Carolina. The facility ramped up its production in 2020, allowing us to move all canister fabrication onshore to this U.S. facility while strengthening our team’s quality performance. During 2020, Orano completed and delivered on all customer commitments for NUHOMS dry storage systems—at double the production of 2019—working at two-thirds of the facility’s new capacity, with room to grow.
To power the U.S. fleet, we continued to reinforce our position as a stable, reliable supplier of uranium fuel materials. The market recognized our value proposition and rewarded us with a record year of term contracts for uranium, conversion and enrichment. Similarly, our spot market engagement was very active and helped meet numerous U.S. customer short-term needs, resulting in one of our best years in commodity trading.
In the nuclear medicine field, our Texas-based Orano Med and its partner RadioMedix advanced their development of AlphaMedix, our first alpha-emitter therapy, with the first in-human dose-escalation study. The drug is in clinical trials in the U.S., and is showing strong positive and encouraging results in treating patients with metastatic somatostatin receptor-positive neuroendocrine cancer tumors.
Across the board, Orano USA made significant progress on multiple fronts in our business, but what we value most are our continued customer relationships as a trusted provider and innovative partner.
In 2021, we will continue to execute on our strategy for delivery and growth, and to provide customer service and solutions at the top of our field.