Mike McMurphy
Vice Chairman and President of AREVA Enterprises, Inc.

As Vice Chairman and President of AREVA Enterprises, Inc. (AREVA U.S.), the North American arm of a fast growing international group with a strong position in the energy business, Mike McMurphy is adamant that AREVA is the right company, at the right time “to make a difference in North America.” AREVA operates in every sector of the civilian nuclear power and fuel cycle industry in over 40 countries, staff e d by some 75,000 employees and offering utilities the services and products they need for electric generation using nuclear power.

McMurphy is also President & CEO of AREVA’s subsidiary, COGEMA, Inc. “ Tom Christopher, President & CEO of Framatome ANP, Inc.(and a member of World-Generation’s Class of 2003), and I are working together to lead the AREVA charge in North America,” says McMurphy.

“Our strategy includes significant growth of the local presence of AREVA around the world, both organically and in partnership with other industry leaders,” McMurphy went on to say in his Bethesda, MD office. “We already have a very strong presence in the North American nuclear sector and, with AREVA’s recent acquisition of Alstom’s Transmission and Distribution business, AREVA is strategically positioned to be a real leader in the energy industry, both here and worldwide.” McMurphy insists that “this is not optimism, but realism.”

AREVA’s “Front-End” division includes supplying services and products that allow utilities to fuel their nuclear reactors: uranium mining, concentration, conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication. After purchasing uranium, utility customers typically retain ownership of their nuclear materials throughout the entire chain of operations. The uranium undergoes a series of processing services, culminating in the fabrication of nuclear fuel. “AREVA is the only group in the world that has every link of this chain“ says McMurphy. “In the United States, AREVA companies have front-end contracts with every major utility.”

The AREVA “Reactors and Services” division designs and builds pressurized water reactors (PWR), boiling water reactors (BWR) and research reactors. As Mike put it during our interview, “AREVA has the technology for current, evolutionary, and revolutionary plants: third-generation reactors, EPRs like the 1600 MW plant AREVA recently sold in Finland, SWR 1000, and so-called fourth generation reactors being planned by 2040. Whatever the future direction chosen by the industry, we’re ready to play a large part in ensuring the industry’s success.” The group built 102 of the 297 PWRs and BWRs worldwide, a number equivalent to the entire U.S. fleet, giving AREVA more than a third of the worldwide market. AREVA also provides products and services to operate and maintain every type of reactor on the market. In the U.S. services market, AREVA companies led by Framatome ANP, Inc. which successfully integrated Duke Engineering and Services in 2002 and including COGEMA’s Canberra nuclear measurements operation-have positioned AREVA in the top tier of service providers.

The “Back End” division provides all the requisite services for managing nuclear fuel after it has been used in the reactor. AREVA has developed and deployed advanced technologies to separate materials, isolate and manage difficult waste elements, and recycle 96% of the energy value of used fuel. In the United States, where used fuel is not recycled but is instead stored pending disposition in a long-term repository, AREVA is the premier spent fuel storage supplier, with COGEMA’s Transnuclear subsidiary having won and executed contracts resulting in AREVA technology being used for more than 50% of installed dry storage capacity. AREVA’s experts are bringing proven fuel management capabilities to the vital Yucca Mountain spent fuel repository program, and AREVA’s unequalled technical expertise in the recycling of used fuel could help provide a strong foundation for the U.S. development of advanced processing technologies, as called for in the National Energy Policy. Additionally, notes McMurphy, “Our recycling experience is also a lynchpin of U.S. government initiatives to convert weapons materials to peaceful use by using them to produce electricity. So, it’s not an overstatement to say that we help resolve the most pressing issues for the nuclear industry, while contributing significantly to making the world a safer place . ”

AREVA recently added a fourth pillar to its energy portfolio with the acquisition of Alstom’s Transmission and Distribution (T&D) business. “AREVA was created to take advantage of synergies,” McMurphy said approvingly. “That philosophy continues with T&D, which is now the fourth energy division in the AREVA group . AREVA T&D expands our range of services to our customers, giving AREVA additional room for strong and profitable growth. In North America, when we combine the strengths of T&D with those of Framatome ANP, Inc., and COGEMA, Inc., AREVA is a formidable energy company.”

Outside the energy business, AREVA operates its Connectors division, a precision manufacturing operation involving the design and fabrication of electrical, electronic and optical connectors, circuitry and interconnection systems. In the United States, Imark Group’s ‘Supplier of the Year’ award went to AREVA’s Electrical Power Interconnect business unit in recognition of the quality of its products and services .

“Let me back up to say a little more about AREVA’s position in the nuclear industry, to which I have been absolutely committed for a long time because I believe in its importance for the wellbeing of future generations. And let me take things in the order of AREVA divisions. In the Front End, we are number one or two in uranium mining, conversion, uranium enrichment and fuel supply. In Reactors and Services, we are number one in reactor design and construction worldwide and a top service provider. In the Back End, no one is even close to us in processing and recycling, and we are also the top provider of spent fuel storage systems. The industry relies on us, and we don’t disappoint.”

A core value for AREVA’s entire group is sustainable development which balances economic growth with social development, while preserving the environment. AREVA joined the United Nations World Pact on sustainable development in March 2003, is a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and is committed to 100% site certification by 2005.

As McMurphy puts it, “There can’t be anything much more rewarding than feeling like your business makes an important contribution to something in which you deeply believe. AREVA is the right place to be."