Imagine a large, completely robotic Lego factory, with several stations over 6,650 m². All under a 25 meter high nave. Orano inaugurated its first automated factory dedicated to the assembly of new generation nuclear packaging this Thursday in Cherbourg. “There, you have a 130-ton gantry which can accommodate the largest components, such as large monobloc forgings manufactured by suppliers. We will take these components – which we receive mainly from France or Europe – and we will assemble them with a completely innovative process to form packaging”underlines Ludovic Mariette, in charge of the TN Eagle Factory project in Cherbourg.
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The number of components needed to make these packaging has been reduced by tenwhich speeds up its manufacturing. An assembly without welding or machining. “This simplicity allows for much greater robustness and safer packaging than what we have done until now”adds Ludovic Mariette. These packagings are intended to transport and store irradiated nuclear fuels for several decades, leaving the power plant. “In the nuclear industry, as soon as there is a weld, there are lots of checks behind it. When you check, you inevitably find things. You have to repair it, it takes time, you have to do paperwork. The clock is ticking, which means additional delays and additional costs. We couldn’t do this anymore.”explains Frédéric de Agostini, director of nuclear packaging and services activities at Orano. The components are manufactured in parallel, in advance: everything arrives in Cherbourg, and in three months, everything was assembled.
Around a hundred packages on order
A TN Eagle package is five meters high, three meters in diameter and weighs almost 150 tonnes. It meets all the tests required for its regulations: drop from nine meters, fire of 800 degrees for thirty minutes, immersion at 200 meters, air crash… The assembly of the packaging is simpler, which makes it possible to go faster: 15 months to produce packaging, compared to 36 on average for the previous generation. “We wanted modular packaging capable of meeting the constraints of different customers, in order to make it as efficient as possible. This factory allows us to adapt to the needs of our customers”specifies the project manager.
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Orano has obtained orders for around a hundred TN Eagle packaging from French and international customers. Like the United States, Switzerland, Japan, France… “Switzerland is considering extending its nuclear reactors. Japan is restarting its own. So there will be additional needs. Over the ten years, we have a target of around 500 packages to collect. And I think that we can do better. We have competitors all over the world. Our goal is to fill this factory to be even more efficient. We’re not going to give up.”notes the director of nuclear packaging and services activities at Orano. The company is in the running for a major call for tenders for Belgium.
The manufacturing site was not chosen by chance: located in the port of Cherbourg, it is close to both the Quai des Flamands maritime terminal and the Valognes railway terminal. Orano indicates that “this ideal location allows to optimize the supply of components and delivery to customers all over the world”. The Cherbourg factory must manufacture around twenty packages from 2025, and reach its maximum capacity of thirty packages per year from 2026.
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