Nuclear Reactors 268 - Serious Problems At Areva Le Creusot Forge in France
I have mentioned the Le Creusot Forge multiple times in previous posts. It is owned by Areva, a nuclear reactor construction firm that is a subsidiary of the French-owned utility EDF. For many years, the Le Creusot forge had one of the only forges in the world that was big enough to create reactor vessels for commercial power reactors. Now the question has been raised of whether or not nuclear reactor components should ever have been made at Le Creusot.
Tests of a reactor vessel manufactured at Le Creusot recently for use in one of the first of a new generation of reactors called European Pressurized Reactors (EPR) showed that there was too much carbon in the steel and it was only half as tough as it was supposed to be. This led to investigations into the quality control at Le Creusot Forge.
It was found that Le Creusot Forge staff falsified or out-right forged quality control documents for nuclear reactor components over the past forty years. The danger of brittle high carbon steel in reactor vessels and other components from the forge shuttered twenty French nuclear power reactors for inspection last year and threw doubt on many other reactors scattered around the world that contained Le Creusot Forge parts.
The French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) which has been investigating operations at the Le Creusot Forge has now declared that the equipment at the Forge is not adequate to the task of manufacturing acceptable nuclear components. An ASN official said "Le Creusot Forge is at the limit of its technical capacity. The tools at its disposal are not adequate to manufacture such huge components. In such a situation, errors are made. The inspection brought to light the fact that the safety culture in the plant is not sufficient to produce nuclear components."
In addition to the forgeries at Le Creusot, it was also discovered that the staff kept special files on parts that they knew might be substandard but they had instructions to never show those files to people who purchased those parts or to inspectors from ASN. Areva was ultimately ordered to inspect by hand records for thousand of parts manufactured at the Forge over decades.
When the forgeries and special files were discovered, Areva shut down the Le Creusot Forge. They are hoping to restart the plant this summer if ASN authorizes it. If they cannot restart the plant this summer, they will have to go to outside suppliers for components to be used in the scheduled construction of nuclear power reactors for their customers. They may wind up losing customers if they cannot get the plant open soon and reassure customers that the quality control problems have been solved.
The ASN has presented Areva a list of questions about the culture and operation of the Forge that must be answered by March before ASN makes a decision on authorized the plant to reopen. Areva says that they are going to spend over eight million dollars to insure that the equipment at the plant is fully capable of making safe and fully functional components for use in the construction of nuclear power plants. ASN representatives have not said whether or not they believe that equipment must be replaced at Le Creusot Forge before they authorize its restart.
Historical Image of Le Creusot Forge:
