RW Monitor
10/24/2014
IN THE INDUSTRY
AREVA CEO Luc Oursel announced he will step down from his position citing health reasons, the company said this week. Oursel will pursue treatment for an undisclosed illness, but he told the French government he would remain available to help the transition to a new CEO. “Under these very difficult personal circumstances, and despite my very strong commitment to AREVA, I have had no choice but to hand over my responsibilities at the head of the company and have chosen to take a leave of absence in order to pursue treatment,” Oursel said in a statement. “I must now fight a personal battle against the illness, but all of my thoughts remain with the teams at AREVA. I have been happy and proud to mobilize them in the difficult context for the turnaround of the company, for the benefit of the country, and I am convinced that they will succeed.” AREVA has suffered a down year, with the company announcing a €694m euro loss at the beginning of August while stock prices have dropped to half their worth from the beginning of the year.
ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT
TEPCO announced this week that it has successfully begun testing its enhanced ALPS water treatment system at the plant. The new ALPS system builds off the existing treatment system in an effort to increase treatment capacity. TEPCO already installed two additional systems in the past month. The enhanced systems should be capable of processing 1,500 tons of contaminated water a day in total, twice the capacity of the previous system of 750 tons a day. According to TEPCO, testing has begun on the news system as it ramps up to full operation. “Testing of the system will begin by running the high-performance ALPS for six hours a day, ultimately increasing operations to 24 hours a day after the first week or so,” TEPCO said in a release. “It will augment the existing ALPS systems, which consist of Japanese and international technologies, and which were first installed in October 2012. Compared with the earlier ALPS systems, the high-performance system will produce 90 percent less radioactive waste. Rather than producing the "slurry" waste of the older systems, the new system uses a filter.”
IN THE STATES
Dozens of Michigan communities, along with local government agencies in Canada and other U.S. states, have joined the fight against the proposed Canadian radioactive waste repository in Ontario by passing resolutions in opposition, according to Michigan state Sen. Phil Pavlov (D) this week. Michigan state lawmakers have been vocal about their opposition to Ontario Power Generation’s proposed deep geologic repository for low and intermediate-level radioactive waste, mainly due to its close proximity to the Great Lakes, the largest source of fresh water in the world. Pavlov introduced a resolution that passed the state Senate earlier this that opposed the construction of the repository and called of President Barrack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to intervene. “I applaud the dozens of local governments in Michigan that have supported our efforts to stop this dangerous proposal,” Pavlov said in a statement. “Local communities are overwhelmingly opposed to this proposed facility, and for good reason. Ontario Power Generation’s plan to permanently bury radioactive waste less than a mile from Lake Huron presents a critical threat to the health of the entire Great Lakes region.”
