Veolia Nuclear Solutions: nuclear decommissioning and waste management

Veolia Nuclear Solutions is Veolia ‘s subsidiary dedicated to the dismantling of nuclear power plants and the management of radioactive waste (the “nuclear clean-up market”).

The origins of Veolia Nuclear Solutions

Veolia Nuclear Solutions was reportedly created in 2017 in Westminster, USA to bring together Veolia’s activities around nuclear decommissioning and waste. It is made up of several companies, reflecting several local establishments.

  • In the United States
    • Veolia Nuclear Solutions Inc. Richland Operations Office in Richland, east of Seattle and Portland
    • Veolia Nuclear Solutions Inc. Robotic Systems and Services office in Denver, Colorado
    • Alaron (a low-level radioactive waste reprocessing plant), between Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
  • In Canada
    • Kurion Canada, based in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, a startup that was acquired by Veolia in 2016.
  • In France
    • Asteralis, located in Chasse-sur-Rhône (38670)
  • In the UK
    • Veolia Nuclear Solutions (UK) Limited is based in Abingdon (south of Oxford) in the United Kingdom.
  • In Japan
    • Kurion Japan, KK, in Tokyo

It is not clear, within these entities, what is a subsidiary and what is a branch. For example, when you search for Asteralis, you come up with Veolia Nuclear Solutions Europe. The legal structure Veolia Nuclear Solutions Europe (Siren 789 558 889) was created in October 2012. It is based at 427 route du Hazay, in Limay (78520) and has a branch in . Chasse-sur-Rhône. Nevertheless, there is another structure dedicated to France, dating back to 2007, located in Aix en Provence (13100, Siren 500 803 390) and headed by François Parot (who headed the European structure between 2016 and 2020) since 2019.

According to Wikipedia, Kurion has become Veolia Nuclear Solutions … In short, it’s all a bit hazy. Overall, we will assimilate all these entities to “Veolia Nuclear Solutions”.

Services

Veolia Nuclear Solutions claims to be able to perform the entire waste treatment value chain. In this order:

  • Characterization (measurements, analytical laboratories) of radioactive and chemical materials
  • Robotics, enabling remote handling and limiting worker exposure. Krion designed the robot that examined the damaged reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
  • Component separation.
  • Treatment of waste by processes such as evaporation, concentration or incineration
  • Waste stabilization, through solidification, encapsulation and/or vitrification.

Our subsidiaries

Veolia Nuclear Solutions has a portfolio of subsidiaries developing solutions for the nuclear clean-up market. In particular, it has created two joint ventures with Cyclife, EDF’s subsidiary dedicated to nuclear dismantling and waste management, in equal shares: