On September 17th 2019, during the IAEA General Conference in Vienna, CEA, EDF, Naval Group and TechnicAtome unveiled “NUWARD”™, their jointly developed SMR project, a PWR-based solution to meet the growing world demand for decarbonized, safe and competitive electricity generation, in the 300-400 MWe range.
“NUWARD”™ will benefit from best in class French technologies from more than 50 years of experience in PWR design, development, construction and more than 2,000 reactor years of PWR operating experience.
Based on this proven technology, “NUWARD”™ will be a modular solution introducing some significant innovations with major benefits to the operator and product’s competitiveness : compacity and simplicity of an integrated design, flexibility for construction and operation, innovative safety approach in line with world’s best standards.
Skills in research and qualification from CEA, systems integration and operation from EDF, structures and modular experience from Naval Group as well as compact reactor design expertise from TechnicAtome are strongly mobilised to serve these objectives.
In line with “NUWARD”™ ambition to serve the global market with a competitive solution in the late 2020s, the “NUWARD”™ partners are open to international cooperation, notably to foster the harmonisation of regulation, the standardisation of design and design optimisation.
In that spirit, CEA and EDF have initiated discussions with Westinghouse Electric Company to explore potential cooperation on small modular reactor (SMR) development.
François Jacq, Chairman of CEA stated: “CEA‘s mission is to develop the low carbon energy systems of the future, including the SMR technology. For the 'NUWARD'™ project, the CEA brings its skills and expertise for core and reactor design, development and validation of calculation tools, safety analysis studies and qualification of systems and components by providing its test facilities for R&D actions”.
EDF’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jean-Bernard Lévy stated: “EDF is committed to contributing its wealth of experience to make 'NUWARD'™ a success. Alongside our partners, we believe the project unveiled today is a promising beginning of a safe and competitive nuclear design meant to broaden the range of solutions for low carbon baseload energy offered by the French nuclear industry. We are proud to team with the best experts and breed this new nuclear technology to address a new, high-potential market.”
Naval Group’s Chief Executive Officer Hervé Guillou stated: “For more than 40 years, Naval Group has been building nuclear submarine and aircraft carriers whose propulsion energy is supplied by small nuclear energy production units. Naval Group is thus committed to the highest standards of safety, competitivity and innovation in the nuclear field. This cooperation is a great opportunity and offers interesting synergies with our Nuclear propulsion core skills: Naval Group is proud to contribute to 'NUWARD'™"
TechnicAtome’s Chief Executive Officer Loïc Rocard stated: “TechnicAtome has been designing, assembling and commissioning more than 20 highly compact nuclear reactors, for almost 50 years. We are proud to commit our engineering skills and specific know-how to the exciting 'NUWARD'™ project.”
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