Components provided in U.S. by AREVA are verified for quality and forging strength.
On Dec. 13, the Wall Street Journal published an article about components manufactured at Creusot Forge in France and documentation associated with those components. These two investigations are independent of each other and were first identified and initiated by AREVA. AREVA notified the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) of these issues, and both issues are being thoroughly examined under a deliberative set of international regulatory steps and validation. AREVA has been and will continue to be in contact with its U.S. utility customers and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) throughout these investigations.
Significant progress has been made on both investigations, including the identification of components that may have been affected in the United States, and the review and verification of the quality and safety of those components.
© AREVA/Jean-Marie Taillat
AREVA contacted the U.S. utilities that may have had affected components and, after completing the U.S. evaluations, followed up with component status confirmations to its U.S. utility customers regarding both investigations:
- Manufacturing documentation: The audit of quality documentation for all U.S. components purchased from AREVA has been completed, with a single case of missing documentation being resolved. The recovered documentation indicated a forging had received an additional treatment during manufacturing. This additional treatment does not affect the component’s strength or quality.
- Manufacturing process: All components provided by AREVA for U.S. utilities that include forgings manufactured by the Le Creusot forge were identified, and the quality and safety of these components have been confirmed. There are no outstanding questions regarding these components. No components delivered to the U.S. by AREVA contain forgings sourced from another forge in question, Japan Casting & Forging Corp. (JCFC), a company not affiliated with AREVA. AREVA purchased the Le Creusot forge in 2006.
The NRC is engaged in the international review and AREVA is fully cooperating in this process.
