Le Creusot

Located in Le Creusot, France (Saône-et-Loire), the Creusot Forge facility is one of the very few forging plants worldwide capable of manufacturing the large-scale components essential to the production of nuclear island primary equipments.

The plant carries out forging, heat treatment and machining prior to the assembly of the primary reactor loop components.

The Le Creusot facility specializes in the manufacture of large forged and cast components made from low-alloy steel and stainless steel for the primary systems of nuclear power plants, including:

• Steam Generators: shells ranging from 4 to 5 meters in diameter and tube sheets;
• Pressurizers: shells and pressurizer heads;
• Primary Coolant Piping connecting the reactor vessel to the steam generators: elbows, hot legs and cold legs;
• Reactor Coolant Pump Units: pump casings;
• Reactor Internals: from forged parts manufacturing through to final assembly.

The parts are then delivered to the assembly workshops in Saint-Marcel (France).

The Le Creusot facility is also a major contributor to France’s national defense sector. It is the only French manufacturer capable of producing forged blanks for onboard nuclear propulsion steam generators, thereby supporting the country’s industrial and strategic sovereignty.

Today, the Framatome Le Creusot site includes:

• A foundry
• A forging shop equipped with two presses rated at 11,300 tonnes and 9,000 tonnes, supported by a 200-tonne manipulator
• Three machining workshops featuring large-capacity turning and milling equipment
• An EPR2 reactor internals manufacturing workshop comprising:
  • one multimodal machining center combining machining and welding operations
  • two additional machine tools
  • state-of-the-art assembly, inspection and handling equipment
• A specimen preparation workshop used to cut material samples for qualification and compliance testing
• A mechanical testing and chemical analysis laboratory
• 16 furnaces capable of accommodating components weighing up to 600 tonnes and heating them to temperatures of 1,300°C