AREVA presents quality-improvement plan to French nuclear agency

AREVA Inc. officials have issued quality-improvement plans for manufacturing facilities in France during a presentation to the Board of the French Nuclear Safety Authority on Tuesday.

Included within the plan is the establishment of a technical expert group that would continue to monitor and manage deviations in quality at the company’s Jeumont and Le Creusot facilities. The company also will be developing a program that would enforce higher-quality standards at these locations.

AREVA will be carrying out an audit of both facilities and the Saint-Marcel manufacturing plant to examine quality issues and how they have been addressed since 2004. The company said internal investigators and independent auditors will be carrying out the investigations.

This plan was initiated after a review from the Lloyd’s Register Apave earlier this year at the Le Creusot facility. Through this plan, the company said questions and concerns that had been raised as a result of that review indicate concerns over tensile testing practices at Le Creusot and from reports of welding defects in thermal barriers of reactor pumps at the Jeumont facility.

The company said the final details and time frame are expected to be announced in early in 2016.