AREVA SELECTED TO DESIGN CARLSBAD-AREA INTERIM STORAGE SITE

Local communities in the Carlsbad, N.M., area have selected AREVA to develop an interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel and possibly defense waste on a parcel of land in southeast New Mexico. The decision by the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, a coalition of local governments that owns the land, comes after Fluor withdrew from consideration for the project, leaving NAC International and AREVA in the running. The site is still in the planning stages for design and financing, and AREVA plans to work with local officials to make a decision on the feasability of the project moving ahead. “Now we have to go through the effort of putting words on paper for the initial memorandum of understanding and then defining the scope for going forward,” AREVA Senior Vice President of the Back End Business Group Dave Jones told RW Monitor. “Clearly right now the responsibility for disposition of these materials is with the U.S. Department of Energy, so we will have an initial focus on engaging with DOE on opportunities for funding the initial assessment and studies to site such a facility.”