Areva Forms Group Of Experts To Investigate Quality ‘Deviations’

15 Dec (NucNet): Areva is to create a group of technical experts which will “characterise and manage” any possible quality deviations found at the company’s Le Creusot and Jeumont manufacturing facilities and then, in collaboration with its customers, evaluate the acceptability of the equipment manufactured at the two centres, the company said today. The move is part of a plan for quality improvement at the company’s French equipment manufacturing facilities. It takes into account the results of a quality review by Lloyd’s Register Apave in May 2015 of the company’s Le Creusot facility and responds to questions raised by findings reported since then, one concerning tensile testing performed at Le Creusot’s laboratory and another related to welding defects on the thermal barriers of the reactor coolant pumps manufactured at the company’s Jeumont facility. Areva said these findings have been characterised, their consequences have been studied, and findings concerning EDF’s facilities have been provided to nuclear regulator ASN (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire). Areva said it will also start the second phase of a quality audit concerning how deviations identified since 2004 at Le Creusot were processed. The company said it will include its other equipment manufacturing sites, Saint-Marcel and Jeumont, in this quality review.