The examination of Le Creusot's records passes an important milestone

Framatome, in France, announced today that it has completed the identification and characterization of deviations in all manufacturing records of the Le Creusot site for forgings used in French nuclear power plants. The manufacturing operations of the factory – which were suspended in December 2015 following the discovery of quality badurance problems – resumed in January

Manufacturing in Creusot Forge (Image: Areva)

The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) requires EDF to review the manufacturing records of all components produced by the facility and used in its nuclear power plants. exploitation. EDF must present the results of this review no later than two months before the restart of each of its reactors following scheduled refueling stops.

Framatome reported that a total of 1925 records had been badyzed and that none of the discrepancies examined up to now the ease of maintenance of the components provided to EDF. He added that the summary reports of all French reactors will be submitted to ASN in September.

"Following ASN's review of reports submitted to date, the French safety authority has agreed to restart 31 reactors" David Emond, Executive Vice President From the Framatome component manufacturing unit, said: "Thanks to the integrity, professionalism and attention to detail of the Framatome teams, we were able to review the records. by one, to the quality and time required, and with particular attention to the challenges of operating the nuclear fleet by our EDF customer. "

ASN announced in April 2015 the discovery of an anomaly in the composition of steel in certain areas of the vessel the closure head and the bottom head of the Flamanville EPR reactor. The smithy was decommissioned in December 2015. The anomaly detection led the ASN to ask Areva NP and EDF to "learn all possible lessons from this event". Of the 6000 surveys recorded during the initial investigation, 3854 correspond to forgings installed on nuclear installations.

Framatome received in January the approval of ASN and D & P. EDF to take over the manufacture of forged parts for the French nuclear fleet at its Le Creusot site This decision allowed Le Creusot to continue its ramp-up with a target of 80 bars per year

"The Framatome site Le Creusot will supply key forged components for new projects "International nuclear construction and spare parts French reactors," said Framatome. "Supported by the implementation of the improvement plan launched more than two years ago, the site is now able to carry out this workload, safety and quality being a priority, strengthening teams and skills and investments in production equipment. "

The company said that the Le Creusot site – which currently has 230 employees – has recruited 28 people in 2017 and will add another 40 this year, following investments already made on the site – including 7.5 million 39; euros ($ 8.7 million) last year – an investment plan of 11.0 million euros is in progress for 2018.

"This equates to a total 35 projects covering all areas of the plant, including the renewal of machinery units, the improvement of quenching equipment and the improvement of the press reliability of 11,300 tons, said Framatome

"With its project Factory of the Future, Framatome applications to make data acquisition more reliable and improve traceability during forging operations," said the company. "In addition, teams are working on an R & D program to develop new technical forging processes."

ASN introduced stricter production monitoring measures at the beginning of the year of components. Licensees and manufacturers have until September 1 to implement them.

Research and Writings
by World Nuclear News