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.
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Ignis: Full-scale fire and safety installation for nuclear power plants
IGNIS is a test facility that is unique in the world for its modularity, designed to meet the challenges of fire safety in nuclear power plants.
Discover a short video, in immersion mode.
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IGNIS, the Full-Scale Fire Safety Testing Facility
The IGNIS test facility was established by EDF R&D at its Chatou site. Unique in the world, it makes it possible to investigate fire-related issues in the nuclear fleet at full scale, using modules representative of nuclear power plants in terms of dimensions and ventilation. This new facility comprises four test rigs.
One of these is the Large Volume Enclosure. It can be divided into up to 13 rooms, and its configuration makes it possible to faithfully reproduce the rooms of a nuclear power plant, across several floors if required, and to install cables vertically.
Next to it is the gallery, an elongated room. Cable trays can be installed over long distances to replicate the specific configurations found in the nuclear fleet.
Both test rigs are connected to a ventilation system that supplies fresh air and extracts smoke, providing an air exchange rate comparable to that found in most situations encountered in nuclear power plants.
Two additional test rigs are located nearby: an unventilated room equipped with an extraction system for conducting fires under confined conditions, and a calorimetric hood for characterising fire sources under open conditions. These test rigs are primarily used to prepare test campaigns carried out in the Large Volume Enclosure and the gallery.
Smoke captured in all four test rigs is conveyed outside to a technical area, where it is cooled using a heat exchanger and then filtered.
An instrumentation system has been installed to support the analysis of test results. The concrete walls of the Large Volume Enclosure and the gallery, which provide fire protection, were assembled on site. Inside, a 10 cm layer of sacrificial concrete contains a network of optical fibres used to monitor temperatures during testing and subsequent analysis.
Specific instrumentation is deployed for each test. This mainly consists of temperature and pressure sensors, heat flux meters, gas analysis systems and cameras to monitor tests in real time.
To ensure safety, ignition and fire-starting operations are triggered remotely from the control room. Tests are governed by safety procedures and limited to one hour. Additional safety equipment has also been installed, including an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that allows the facility to be brought into a safe state in the event of a power failure.
The entire facility is monitored from the control room, which overlooks the test hall.
The experimental results are used by engineering teams to develop and substantiate the fire safety doctrine presented to the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN).
The tests can also be used to carry out fire risk assessments.
In addition, the data help EDF R&D understand the underlying physical phenomena and develop its fire simulation software.
A co-working space has been provided close to the facility to foster collaboration and partnerships around this experimental platform.
The facility's dimensions and modular design, the realism of its tests and its ventilation system make it a unique testing facility at the international level.
Find out more at edf.fr.
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WAAM: a way forward for the manufacture of large parts
Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is one of the additive manufacturing processes being closely studied by EDF R&D.
Find out more about this technique, derived from welding, which can be used to manufacture metre-sized parts.
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Cold Spray, a promising process for repairing large components
Installed on the EDF Lab Les Renardières site, Cold Spray is an innovative manufacturing process based on the use of additive manufacturing or 3D printing. The aim is to give us greater control over our component manufacturing and repair processes!
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[VERCORS] 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.
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Visit EDF R&D’s Metal Component Manufacturing and Repair (FRCM) Laboratory
The FRCM laboratory, comprising five test facilities located at EDF Lab les Renardières, aims to demonstrate the applicability and qualify the performance of component manufacturing and repair processes.
Emmanuelle Schoener, head of the laboratory, takes you on a tour of these facilities.
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