Shaw AREVA MOX Services, LLC Signs Final Construction Contract Modification for Department of Energy's MOX Facility

2008-05-22 22:08:42 -

www.shawgrp.com - The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SGR) announced today that Shaw AREVA MOX Services, LLC has signed a modification to its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to complete construction of the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site located in Aiken, S.C. The modification was a contract option in the original contract to proceed with full construction of the main MOX facility and all support facilities, cold startup of the MOX facility and continued support of Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing activities associated with the MOX facility. Shaw will add approximately $2 billion for the contract modification to its third quarter fiscal 2008 backlog.

"This project is an important step in accomplishing the goal of turning the nation's surplus plutonium stockpile into useable fuel and ultimately electricity," said J.M. Bernhard Jr., Shaw's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "The Shaw AREVA team will use its experience and highly skilled nuclear workforce to construct a facility that will dispose of at least 34 metric tons of plutonium. I am proud that Shaw is playing a vital role in a non-proliferation project that is so important to the U.S. and the world."

The facility will remove impurities from surplus weapons-grade plutonium and mix it with uranium oxide to form MOX fuel pellets for use in commercial nuclear power reactors. Construction activities began on August 1, 2007, and continue to proceed on schedule.

The Department of Energy contracted with the Shaw AREVA team to design, license and construct the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility. This work supports the Department's non-proliferation program to eliminate surplus weapons-grade plutonium in the U.S.

Shaw AREVA MOX Services, LLC is a joint venture between Shaw's Environmental & Infrastructure Group (70 percent) and AREVA (30 percent).

The Shaw Group Inc. is a leading global provider of technology, engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance, fabrication, manufacturing, consulting, remediation and facilities management services for government and private sector clients in the energy, chemicals, environmental, infrastructure and emergency response markets. A Fortune 500 company with fiscal 2008 annual revenues expected to exceed $7 billion, Shaw is headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., and employs approximately 27,000 people at its offices and operations in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. For further information, please visit Shaw's Web site at www.shawgrp.com.

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