It’s finally done. On May 31, EDF took control of General Electric’s nuclear activities inherited from Alstom, representing 3,300 employees, including 2,500 in France. Among them is a strategic asset: the manufacture of Arabelle turbines in the Belfort plant (Territoire de Belfort).
They are the most powerful in the world. They equip the latest generations of French EPR nuclear reactors as well as the VVERs of the Russian Rosatom.
As with the reactor designer and manufacturer of vessels, steam generators and fuel assemblies Framatome, in which EDF became a 75% shareholder after the breakup of Areva in 2015, it was at the request of the government, in 2022, that EDF entered into exclusive negotiations with GE to acquire its Steam Power division. To accommodate the new acquisition, the group created a new subsidiary, Arabelle Solutions, whose chairman of the board of directors will be Bernard Fontana, the chairman of Framatome.
EDF is thus in control of the production of the key nuclear components of the EPR2s that it will build in France. But also of those that it exports, notably to the United Kingdom. Which is no gift. The sector was no longer organized to mass-produce reactors as in the 1980s. To increase the rates and produce two EPRs per year, massive investments in the production tool are necessary.
You are reading an article from L’Usine Nouvelle 3732-3733 – July-August 2024
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Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
