A technical visit to three Areva facilities in France

摘要

Our first visit of the trip was to Le Creusot forge which is located around 40km west of Chalon. Once the coach driver dropped us off at the right location (it took 15 minutes for a journey that ended up taking us from one side of a gate to the other) we were all very surprised to see that the factory is located right in the middle of town. Our guide for the trip was Lionel Sibille, a very friendly sales manager. Le Creusot forge specialises in the supply of big forgings and castings for the nuclear market. To date they have supplied over 2800 parts for over 100 nuclear plants worldwide. They are one of the very few forges in the world capable of making the sophisticated parts necessary for the manufacture of the primary components for the nuclear island. The main type of components produced at Le Creusot are reactor pressure vessels, steam generators, pressurisers, primary pumps and primary piping (hot and cold legs), which are then transferred down the road to Chalon St Marcel to be assembled. They are also now looking to diversify into producing spent fuel transfer casks, and large components for wind energy, petrochemicals and shipping.