With almost one third of the project complete, the MOX (mixed oxide) Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is a great example of current construction and technology at work in the U.S. The facility construction began in August 2007 and already 263,000 square feet of office space have been completed, with 78,000 currently under construction. The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, approximately 17% complete, will be an impressive 600,000 square feet, roughly 10 football fields. The MFFF will host three separate units for shipping and receiving, aqueous polishing, and the MOX process.
While grand in scale, the construction site is securely at the center of 310-square miles of the DOE reservation in Aiken, South Carolina. The MOX facility has been a cooperative effort between Shaw, AREVA, and the Department of Energy to bring MOX fuel technology to the US. AREVA’s MELOX and La Hague facilities were the model for this project, based on more than 30 years of successful operation. The MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility is based on these two reference facilities and has been modified to meet with all of the US codes and standards including safety and security requirements.
The numbers that this project generates in employment are proportionate to its colossal construction size. Through its suppliers, the MOX project employs approximately 2,400 people spread across thirty states. On the site, more than 1,400 people are working for the Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC. This number will to jump to approximately 3,000 by late 2009 as the progress continues on construction and process unit manufacturing/fabrication. As the project will be licensed for 20 years, the MOX facility will require a steady workforce for decades to come.
Share TAGS: Aiken, AREVA Inc., AREVA North America, La Hague, MOX, Recycling, South Carolina
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