General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) yesterday announced in a press release that it has signed a contract extension to provide fuel services to Entergy’s fleet of boiling water reactors. The contract is valued at more than $100 million, against which General Electric will be providing services until the end of fiscal year 2021.
General Electric, in alliance with Hitachi operates its GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH), which provides advanced reactor and nuclear services worldwide. The joint venture has been operating since fiscal year 2007. As part of the recent contract, GE Hitachi will be supplying eight fuel reloads, located at two of Entergy’s boiling water reactors.
General Electric Global Nuclear Fuel Chief Operating Officer (COO) Amir Vexler said that the extension contract shows the confidence of customers in the company, and will allow the company to continue operating in the energy sector. This is not the first time the company will be providing refueling services to Entergy. Prior to the the joint venture with Hitachi, General Electric nuclear segment had been providing fuel reload services to River Blend and Grand Gulf boiling water reactors.
Entergy has been using the GE-Hitachi built GNF2 fuel designs since 2008. However, Entergy announced along with the contract that it would be using the latest GNF3 fuel design at its River Bend plant. GE-Hitachi offers increased flexibility and performance in operations compared to GNF2.
The amount of the contract is not significant, however, the contract will help General Electric achieve its long-term objective of focusing on industrial projects. Additionally, the contract will ensure the segment is occupied until fiscal 2021. General Electric is looking forward to investing in new industrial projects, once it has finalized the sale of most of GE Capital's financial sub-segments.
GE-Hitachi unit is currently generating 35GW energy in the North American region, 7.1GW in Japan and 2.6GW in the European region, which has been increasing over time. It was also reported that the work on fuel under the recent contract will be done at the GE-Hitachi facility located in Wilmington, NC.
