French nuclear engineering company Areva and Kazatomprom, a state-owned nuclear holding company in Kazakhstan, have signed an agreement to create a fuel marketing joint venture called Ifastar. Under the terms of the agreement, the newly created Paris-based Ifastar will be owned jointly by Areva with 51% interest and Kazatomprom with 49% interest.
The mission of Ifastar is to perform a feasibility study consisting of two parts: the assessment of the Asian market in view of selling integrated fuel packages (including all front-end segments and combining Kazatomprom's uranium resources and Areva's fuel technology) to power utilities operating in Asia and the assessment of the technical and economical feasibility of the construction of a dedicated fuel manufacturing line located at Kazatomprom's Ulba metallurgical plant site in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan.
Depending on the results of the assessment, and after the decision of the partners, Ifastar would run the sales of the products from this line while the fuel manufacturing itself would be performed by another joint venture, owned jointly by Kazatomprom with 51% interest and Areva with 49% interest.
Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of Areva, said: "This agreement reinforces the strategic partnership between Areva and Kazatomprom. It will contribute to the diversification and security of our supplies by increasing available uranium resources for our customers."
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