OREANDA-NEWS. AREVA TN recently signed a contract with Xcel Energy to provide wide ranging dry fuel storage management services to the company’s Prairie Island and Monticello nuclear generating plants in Red Wing and Monticello, Minn., respectively.

Under this multi-year contract, AREVA will oversee and perform the removal of nuclear fuel from the Prairie Island reactor’s spent fuel storage pool, its placement in dry storage casks, and its secure storage on the site’s existing interim storage pad.

At Monticello, AREVA will deliver and install 10 NUHOMS® 61BTH dry fuel storage systems in 2017 and will manage and perform the pool-to-pad process to place the used fuel in the shielded NUHOMS® storage modules in 2018.

“Our expertise in the Back End of the fuel cycle enables us to safely manage fuel from the spent fuel pool through its secure storage on site,” said Greg Vesey, senior vice president of AREVA TN Americas. “This integrated approach offers utilities a long-term solution that is safe and cost-effective.”

AREVA TN has loaded more than 900 canisters at sites across the United States, more than any other supplier in the country.