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       The La Creusot Foundry is owned by Framatome which is a unit of the French state-controlled utility EDF. The Foundry has a huge forge which is one of the few in the world that can handle the creation of a reactor containment vessel for a nuclear reactor.
       Framatome is constructing a new nuclear reactor at the Flamanville nuclear power plant in Flamanville, France. The reactor being constructed at Flamanville is important to the European nuclear trade because it is a new design called a European Pressurized Reactor that was being developed for global export. If it had been completed on schedule, it would have been the first EPR in the world. However, there are other EPRs under construction in other countries that may be finished before Flamanville.
       The vessel for the nuclear reactor being constructed in Flamanville, France was found to be made of sub-standard steel by the French nuclear regulatory agency (A
SN). The steel contained too much carbon and that meant the it was half as strong as it needed to be.
       When another reactor vessel made at La Creusot was found to also contain weak steel, an audit of the company records was ordered. It turned out that there were many components manufactured at La Creusot were also defective or made of poor steel. The staff at the Foundry knew about the problems but hid the information from regulatory authorities and customers.
       The revelation of problems at the Foundry reverberated throughout the global nuclear industry. There are nine nuclear reactors in the U.S. alone with parts from La Creusot. Fortunately. they don’t appear to be defective. Other countries carried out inspections on their reactors with La Creusot parts. Production is being closely monitored at La Creusot to prevent similar problems from reccuring.
       It was first noticed in 2015 that there were problems with the welding in the steam transfer pipes at Flamanville. The French nuclear regulatory agency (ASN) made resumption of welding work at Flamanville contingent upon regulatory conditions. They said, “These pipes have been the subject of design and production deviations about which ASN communicated.” 
       Now the ASN has found that the welding done after the 2015 investigation has not been monitored properly in spite of the complaints of the ASN. Now the ASN is asking for a broader probe into welding done at Flamanville. In a communication to Framantome, ASN “therefore asks EDF to extend the review on the quality of equipment installed on this reactor. The review should notably be based on in situ controls and documentary reviews, complementary to those carried out during construction and assembly operations.”
       In the middle of 2017, Framantome put off the estimated completion date for the EPR at Flamanville to some time in 2019 because of the welding issues. They said at that time that they would have to rewelded fifty of the welds in the secondary circuit of the steam transfer system but that about ninety of the welds were done correctly according to the specifications in the regulations.
       I have often criticized companies in the nuclear industry for not observing regulatory agency guidelines. Nuclear reactors are extremely complex and can be extremely dangerous if not constructed properly to tight specifications. Framatome appear to be one of the worst violators in the world. Not only was their forge making substandard parts for years, there reactor construction unti cannot even weld properly. What is especially concerning is the fact that even after their incompetence was discovered and they were instructed to do things properly, they continued to violate regulations. This seems to me to go beyond incompetence and suggests willful intent to avoid following regulations. This sort of behavior will not help the floundering global nuclear industry.