As the world's leading nuclear operator, the EDF Group is the leader of a strategic industrial sector of excellence and has unique expertise in this field. One of the priority roles of R&D is to support and perpetuate this major asset for the Group.
R&D is working to protect EDF's assets by making its actions part of the process of improving the safety of installations, seeking to improve performance and extend the operating life of reactors.
To do this, R&D researchers rely on unique testing resources and laboratories. Discover some of these emblematic laboratories!
We offer you here a first overview of our laboratories and testing facilities, not exhaustive. Please visit our page regularly, as more content will be added in the coming weeks and months.
Visit the IGNIS device... in 360°!
The EDF Lab site in Chatou is home to a unique device where the problems associated with fires in nuclear facilities are studied in real life. This device is called IGNIS (full scale fire safety facility) has 4 test facilities enabling it to deal with all possible situations within industrial sites.
Discover this unique device by clicking on this link, enjoy your visit!
PERICLES Platform… At 360°
Located at EDF Lab Chatou, PERICLES is a testing platform that reproduces the conditions in which a nuclear power plant’s cooling circuit operates. Discover it in this virtual tour!
WAAM additive manufacturing... at 360°!
EDF’s R&D Department has set up the Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing which involve a welding robot arm and metal wire. This process is used to make and manufacture large components in nuclear field .
Let’s discover this process in this virtual visit
Discover also our R&D gem on additive manufacturing: a complete file to know everything about this revolutionary process.
Dive into the heart of additive manufacturing... at 360°!
Installed on the EDF Lab Les Renardières site, the Cold Spray is an innovative manufacturing process based on the use of additive manufacturing or 3D printing. The objective: a better control of our manufacturing or repair processes of our components!
Visit the Chemistry, Microbiology and Ecotoxicology laboratories... At 360°
These three laboratories can be used to study biological and chemical phenomena that affect the availability, safety and and performance of production facilities. Discover them in this virtual tour!
Your browser does not support javascript.
To enable you to access the information, we suggest you view the video in a new tab.
EDF R&D studies the resistance of reactor enclosures
R&D has built a 1/3 scale model of a nuclear reactor vessel, which allows accelerated aging studies of concrete vessels.
