Skip to main content

Fuel Manufacturing Innovations at AREVA Provide Reliable Global Electricity

By
Manuel Seubert is a process engineer in ceramics manufacturing for AREVA. He has been in the nuclear industry for 7 years. He also serves as treasurer of the NAYGN AREVA Richland chapter.

Manuel Seubert
Manuel Seubert
Why are you a nuclear engineer? Why do you like working where you do?

I’m a process engineer in AREVA’s uranium dioxide fuel pellet manufacturing facility in Richland, Wash. I worked in a similar position at our AREVA facility in Germany before relocating to Richland. The opportunities and variety of challenges presented in my job is what I enjoy most. I am responsible for solving technical problems, investigating the source of process disconnects, as well as improving the performance of the new and existing manufacturing processes. I enjoy working in manufacturing in a technical engineering support role because it offers a wide range of exposure and it always presents interesting challenges.

Why do you think nuclear energy is important to America’s energy future?

Nuclear energy is important not only for America’s energy future, but for the energy future of any industrialized nation that has a need for a reliable and clean source of energy. Other energy sources may be just as reliable or just as clean, but the combination of reliable and clean is what makes nuclear energy unique and important.

How are you bringing innovation into the nuclear energy industry?

There are many ways to bring innovation into the nuclear energy industry. I participate in monthly meetings with my colleagues from the other AREVA sites in Germany and France where we exchange operational experiences and discuss best practices in fuel manufacturing within AREVA. With AREVA’s recent introduction of new fuel designs, it is important that the process engineers are aligned globally. AREVA just announced its delivery of the GAIA lead time assemblies for its next generation pressurized water reactor fuel design.  We have also delivered lead time assemblies for our new ATRIUM 11 boiling water reactor fuel design, and are currently in the process of designing new fuel for the next generation nuclear plant. Innovations are unlimited in our industry and I am excited to participate in an organization that leads the change for a more reliable, safer and cleaner energy solution.

The above post by AREVA is a part of NEI’s Powered by Our People promotion which showcases the innovators within the nation’s nuclear energy workforce.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

By
Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...
23 comments
Read more

How many nuclear plants does it take to meet the world's energy needs?

By
Several weeks ago Joshua Pearce at Clarion University in Pennsylvania released a study titled “ Thermodynamic limitations to nuclear energy deployment as a greenhouse gas mitigation technology .” In the study he stated... nuclear energy production would have to increase by 10.5% per year from 2010 to 2050 to both replace fossil-fuel-energy use and meet the future energy demands. This line, of course, made the headlines and has been picked up by several outlets and blogs . When looking into his calculations for this statement, he made one assumption error that overstated the above sentence by nearly a factor of three. Page 121, Section 4.1 of the study states: Richard Smalley pointed out that in 2004, the global economy consumed the equivalent of 220 million barrels of oil per day, which converted into electricity terms is the equivalent of 14.5 TeraWatts (TW), or 14,500,000 MegaWatts (MW) (2005). … With a nuclear plant having about 1000 MW (1 GW) of capacity, we would need 14,500...
7 comments
Read more

What Happens During a Refueling Outage?

By
You may have noticed over the past few weeks that a number of nuclear plants are shut down for refueling outages or are resuming operations after just returning from one. This type of routine outage usually occurs in the spring or fall when electricity demand is low so that nuclear reactors can replace about one-third of the spent fuel rods with new fuel and conduct other routine maintenance and repairs at the plant. To get a better sense of how refueling works at a nuclear energy facility, I spoke with Marcus Nichol, NEI’s senior project manager for used fuel storage and transportation, and asked him to explain the basics. Why does a nuclear plant need to replace one-third of its fuel? Nichol: The main purpose of a refueling outage is to replace older fuel that is depleted—meaning it can no longer efficiently produce energy from nuclear fission reactions—with new fuel. This “used fuel” has typically been used in the reactor for four-and-a-half to six years before it is pe...
6 comments
Read more