On Monday 23 October 2017, Assystem Energy & Infrastructure teams attended the 4th international conference organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and EDF, about Nuclear Power Plant Life Management. In two separate conferences, our nuclear experts in project management and safety were able to share their expertise.

Conference 1 - Assystem's approach to the long-term management of nuclear power plants, led by our industrial safety experts Gilles Desvergnes and Cédric Cuillandre

The long-term operation (LTO) of existing nuclear power plants is crucial for sustaining energy production, but the safety and control systems of nuclear power plants are complex and must always show compliance with heavy regulatory constraints.

Assystem Energy & Infrastructure offers long term maintenance and sustainability solutions to the nuclear industry. Since technological obsolescence can become a very important risk factor for an optimal continuity of operation, Assystem studies and implements maintenance strategies for these complex systems - based on electronic, IT and network technologies. The objective of our industrial maintenance approach is to guarantee, in the long term, the performances of the system regardless of the technological evolutions since their original design.

With our 25 years of maintenance experience alongside EDF on 58 French nuclear reactors located on 19 sites, Assystem teams have developed and implemented its Plant Life Management (PLM) programme that integrates innovative technologies for critical and complex security and control systems, and that reduces the environmental impact.

Conference 2 - Numerical solutions: a means to analyse and execute safe, cost-effective life extension projects of operating nuclear power plants, led by our nuclear experts Nicholas Morris and Arthur Margarit

European nuclear power plant operators are considering extending the operating life of their facilities to 60 years and beyond in a safe and cost-effective manner, despite the fact that these facilities were originally designed to only function and produce power for 30-40 years. Until recently, such a process had been a laborious one, relying upon archived, hand drawn sketches and non-computerised methods of work. However, our teams have developed a new technique.

The Assystem Energy & Infrastructure teams believe that the integration of a 'Data-Centric Approach' [DCA] - the use of one, unique, data set by the various stakeholders for the entire Nuclear Power Plant [NPP] life extension project - is a novel means of facilitating modification and configuration management of NPPs. The DCA shall be a powerful tool for owners, operators and contractors alike for safe, cost-effective projects. It has a huge potential to revolutionise the manner in which NPP safety enhancement projects are conducted.

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Assystem SA published this content on 27 October 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
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