In October, Framatome strengthened its links with Japanese customers thanks to high-level meetings and some visits to its sites.
One of the main events was the N20 meeting, held in Paris on October 7th. Organized by Framatome, it gathered leaders of the French and Japanese nuclear industries for a full day of presentations and discussions. Catherine Cornand, Senior Executive Vice President, Installed Base Business Unit, Frédéric Lelièvre, Senior Executive Vice President, Sales, Regional Platforms and Instrumentation and Control Business Unit and Lionel Gaiffe, Senior Executive Vice President, Operational Excellence and Fuel Business Unit, represented Framatome, while Bernard Fontana, CEO of Framatome, participated in the receptions to greet and meet the Japanese delegations.
Framatome presented topics for which there is a growing interest in Japan: digital solutions to support operation of the reactors, the PROtect Accident Tolerant Fuel and activities in the area of Reprocessed Uranium fuel.
The members of the N20 meeting in Paris
The visit of the Japanese delegations to France also provided the opportunity to hold top-level bilateral meetings with major Japanese customers: Kansai Electric Power Company, Tokyo Electric Power Holdings — TEPCO, and JAEA. Meetings were also held with MHI.
At the same time, top executives and managers visited our facilities where they saw our competences, our equipment and how Framatome is deploying Operational Excellence “in the field”. They were surprised to see many Japanese words in use on our sites, such as “Gemba”, “Kaizen” or “obeya”, taken from the Toyota model of Operational Excellence, implemented at Framatome.
The President of JAEA President visited CERCA at Romans, The Chief Nuclear Officer of Kyushu Electric Power Company went to Flamanville-3 with teams from the Installed Base (IB) Business Unit, JAPC Executive Vice-President visited Karlstein in Germany to see the qualification facilities, and managers of Chubu Electric Power Company went to Lyon for some demonstrations of digital tools.
President Koguchi of JAEA visiting the CRIL R&D facility of CERCA (Romans).
The Chief Nuclear Officer of Kyushu Electric Power Company, Toyoshima-san, at Flamanville-3 with teams from the IB BU.
Managers of Chubu Electric Power Company at Lyon with teams from the IB BU.
This sequence of high-level meetings and visits of Framatome sites shows that at a time when nuclear energy is regaining momentum in Japan, the competences, the facilities and the products of Framatome are very attractive to the Japanese customers.
Japan has restarted 10 reactors (Pressurized Water Reactors) and is targeting to have about 30 units in operation in 2030 (about 50% PWRs type and 50% Boiling Water Reactors type), representing 20 to 22% of electricity production. The government recently indicated that the construction of new reactors could potentially be considered.
Framatome, through its Business Units and the local subsidiary Framatome Japan KK, is a major partner of the Japanese nuclear industry. MHI holds 19.5% of Framatome’s shares.