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FRENDE
4/25/2012

Position Paper – Robustness of the Cooling Function

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4/25/2012

Cooling the Nuclear fuel is one of the three basic safety functions of Nuclear Power Plants. The Fukushima accident send a clear message to each NPP operators, to verify the robustness of the cooling function against internal and external hazards for all facilities with residual heat generation and, if needed, to strengthen it on all levels of the defense-in-depth concept.

Associated documents

  • Position Paper – Robustness of the Cooling Function

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Activities: melting and forging

Fully automated 2500 tons forging press, CEZUS UGINE (FRANCE)

The CEZUS site in Ugine specializes in arc melting in vacuum and in hot forging of zirconium, hafnium, and titanium

MANUFACTURE OF ZIRCONIUM ALLOYS

The Ugine plant manufactures zirconium alloys from zirconium sponges coming from the CEZUS Jarrie facility, from recycled zirconium products and from scraps. These materials are melted, forged and shaped into billets, bars or extruded blanks. Other CEZUS facilities will transform these products into flat products and tubes. The plant’s annual capacity is 1200 metric tons of extruded blanks and 800 metric tons of billets.

Organization chart of the division zirconium

Positioning of CEZUS Ugine in the Zirconium division.

The plants activities revolve around eight shops:

  • The Material Preparation shop sorts the scraps and the recycled materials used to produce shavings;
  • The Compaction shop assembles the various components of zirconium alloys in the form of electrodes;
  • The Melting shop melts the electrodes in a vacuum in electric arc furnaces to produce zirconium ingots weighing approximately eight tons;
  • The Forging shop forges the ingots into flat products and bars;
  • The Billets shop transforms these flat products into billets;
  • The Extrusion shop first polishes the blocks produced by the forge. Next, the blocks are pierced, heated, lubricated and pressed in an extrusion press to produce extruded blanks;
  • The Pickling shop has two main roles: degreasing the shavings of recycled materials and finishing the surface of extruded blanks;
  • The rod cap bar shop prepares the bar blanks produced in the forge. These bars are shipped to Paimboeuf, where rod cap bars are manufactured.

PRODUCTS MANUFACTURED AT THE UGINE SITE

Process diagram

The products manufactured in Ugine include:

  • Extruded blanks, which are used to manufacture cladding tubes and guide tubes. The blanks are shipped to the Montreuil-Juigné facility and then on to Paimboeuf and Duisburg.
  • Bar blanks, which are transformed into rod cap bars at the Paimboeuf site. Once welded to the extremity of the nuclear fuel rods used in nuclear reactors, the fuel caps seal the nuclear materials inside the rods.
  • Billets, which are used to manufacture flat products at the Rugles plant.