nuclear-news

Steam drainage pipes made by EDF and Fromatome (i.e. AREVA) not all safe

ASN 23rd Feb 2018 [Machine Translation] The ASN college questioned EDF and Framatome
(formerly Areva NP) about the deviations in the welding of the main steam
drainage pipes.

The first discrepancies were brought to the attention of
the ASN in early 2017. These pipes are affected by a so-called “rupture
exclusion” approach, which implies a strengthening of design, manufacturing
and service monitoring requirements. This reinforcement must be sufficient
to consider that the rupture of these pipes is extremely improbable.

It allows the operator not to fully study the consequences of a rupture of
these pipes in the safety demonstration of the installation. In order to
achieve the expected high quality of production, strengthened requirements
including mechanical properties were defined by the operator (EDF) and the
manufacturer (Framatome).

However, these reinforced requirements have not
been specified to the subcontractor in charge of producing the welds. The
controls carried out during manufacturing in the factory have shown that
they are not all compliant for certain welds. As a result of an ASN
inspection, this observation has been extended to other welds of these
pipelines made at the Flamanville site.

https://www.asn.fr/Informer/Actualites/Reacteur-EPR-de-Flamanville2

February 27, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, safety