The benefits of membership will include regular events and training, networking and partnering, information and intelligence, promotional opportunities and access to key industry areas, not only new build, but decommissioning and defence also.

Gareth Davies, Director of Davies Nuclear Associates said:

Bringing business together to network and share knowledge.

Maximising opportunities to support regional growth.

Women in Nuclear – working with Women in Nuclear (WiN) network

The revelation plunged the French nuclear industry into a new crisis, prompting fears that dozens of reactors in France and possibly the UK could be dangerous.

Britain’s nuclear safety regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), said last night that it was seeking answers from EDF, the troubled state-owned electricity company planning to build two European pressurised reactors at Hinkley Point.

The ONR said that it was “aware of reports of possible falsification of manufacturing and quality control” at a French state-owned factory that has manufactured key components used in more than half of France’s 58 nuclear reactors. The factory, owned by the collapsed nuclear reactor manufacturer Areva, is due to produce the reactors to be used at Hinkley.

“We have been in contact with [EDF] with regard to any applicability to Hinkley Point C,” a spokeswoman said. She added that the ONR was seeking additional information about the possibility that unverified components manufactured at the Areva plant in Le Creusot, Burgundy, may have been installed by EDF at some of the 15 reactors it owns in Britain.

A spokeswoman for Areva, a sister company of EDF, acknowledged that there were questions over the safety and reliability of France’s nuclear industry. “Obviously, this is a major issue in terms of confidence,” she said. “We have got our people mobilised to bring transparency here, and we are determined to do that.”
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Areva admitted on Monday that information on the safety of the reactor pressure vessels it has been making for French nuclear plants since the 1960s is either missing or wrong.

Philippe Knoche, Areva chief executive, said that he could not rule out falsification. There have been claims that the errors may have been a deliberate attempt to mislead the French nuclear watchdog, ASN.

“We can neither confirm nor exclude potential falsifications,” a spokesman said, amid fears of possible flaws in its practices and quality control.

Mycle Schneider, an expert on the French nuclear industry, said that hundreds of large components manufactured at the Le Creusot plant were not properly accounted for. About 50 are believed to be in use inside French nuclear power stations but smaller components could be in reactors owned by EDF in Britain, he said. A similar scandal in Japan in 2005 led to the shutdown of 17 nuclear reactors.

“This puts into question the entire chain of quality control and safety inspections in France,” he said.

France’s reactors generate almost 80 per cent of the country’s electricity.
Areva collapsed last year amid huge debts linked to the botched construction of European pressurised reactors in Finland and Normandy. Documents relating to 10,000 components made in the Le Creusot factory since 1965 are being analysed; so far 400 have revealed anomalies, about half of which relate to nuclear plant parts.

A final decision on Hinkley, designed to provide 7 per cent of the UK’s electricity, has been delayed until September amid fears the cost could cripple EDF.”

Thomas Piquemal’s shock resignation in March raised doubts about EDF’s ability to finance the 18 billion pound project in western England but Piquemal had not previously spoken publicly about his reasons for leaving.

“In January 2015, I proposed to negotiate a three-year delay with our client because we reasoned that it would weigh too heavily on EDF’s balance sheet,” Piquemal told a parliament committee hearing.

A visibly emotional Piquemal said he resigned in desperation when it eventually became clear that he would not be able to delay the project.

“I could not sign off on a decision that could one day put EDF in the same situation as Areva, having to recapitalise the company a few months before defaulting on payments,” he said.

Nuclear group Areva — which has agreed to sell its reactor business to EDF — was virtually bankrupt after years of losses wiped out its equity and was rescued by the state.

Piquemal denied reports that he had resigned for personal reasons and said that staying at the utility without speaking out about the risk involved with Hinkley Point would have been “a professional mistake”.

“Who would bet 60 to 70 percent of his equity on a technology that has not yet proven that it can work and which takes 10 years to build,” he said.

Four Areva-designed EPR reactors of the same kind EDF wants to build in Britian are under construction in France, Finland and China and are years behind schedule and way over budget.

Piquemal declined to comment on technical issues, but said the EPR involves a “major construction risk”.

Since Piquemal’s resignation, EDF has announced a four billion euro capital increase and the government has agreed to forego cash dividends for two years, in a capital boost estimated at generating around 7 billion euros.”

In October EDF struck a deal with China General Nuclear Power Corporation, which agreed to pay a third of the total cost of the project in return for a 33.5% stake.

Hinkley Point was supposed to start producing power by 2023, but French giant EDF, which is leading on the project, is reportedly struggling to raise the cash for its 66.5% stake.

According to the Financial Times, there are plans in place to sell airports in Nice and Lyon to help finance the deal.

Shares in Renault and Safran, the aerospace and defence group, could also be sold.

A spokesman for the French government did not comment yesterday.”