French waste management provider Veolia will provide nuclear decommissioning and waste processing technologies to national utility EDF under a partnership formally sealed Tuesday.
Both parts of the agreement involve capabilities Veolia acquired in its 2016 purchase of California-based nuclear cleanup technologies specialist Kurion.
EDF is conducting decommissioning of six gas-cooled nuclear reactors at Bugey, Chinon, and Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux. Veolia will use its experience in development of remote-controlled robot systems to provide “innovative solutions” for dismantlement and removal of parts from the reactor cores, according to a joint press release from the two companies.
Veolia’s GeoMelt system, which converts radioactive waste into a glass form for disposal, will also be applied to low- and intermediate-level waste under the agreement.
“The objective for the two companies is the industrial implementation and joint commercial operation of these robotics and vitrification technologies,” the press release says.
Additional details of the agreement were not immediately available Tuesday.
