Areva’s Richland plant turns 45

Areva celebrated 45 years of manufacturing nuclear fuel at its Horn Rapids Road plant in Richland at the end of October.

“Our facility has grown tremendously in the last 45 years and today we are proud to supply about one-third of the U.S. market for nuclear fuel,” said Ron Land, Richland site manager, in a statement.

The original Richland facility had three buildings and employed 60 people. Today the Richland plant has 600 employees working in 40 buildings. They provide fuel to pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors throughout the world.

The Richland plant also has been working with NuScale Power on nuclear fuel design and related testing services for new small modular reactors.

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 10:01 PM with the headline "Areva’s Richland plant turns 45."