Alstom Bags 1,750-Megawatt Turbine Contract for French EPR Reactor

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). The first two major contracts for the $4.2 billion European Pressurized Reactor project at Flamanville, Normandy have been awarded by Electricite de France (EDF) (Paris:FR0010242511) to power company Alstom (Paris:FR0010220475) (Paris, France) and civil construction company Bouygues.

EDF said that the nuclear island and the instrumentation and control work for Flamanville-3 had been given to the Areva Group without having been put out to tender. EDF’s in-house engineering division will act as the architect-engineer for the project, which will see the nuclear power station built, adjacent to the two existing 1,330-megawatt (MW) nuclear plants, which went into operation in 1986 and 1987.

The ‘third generation’ EPR has four steam generators, one for each of the four heat removal loops composing the primary system. The steam generators are heat exchangers receiving heat from the nuclear reactor on the primary side and delivering heat to the non-nuclear section of the plant. A leak-tight separation is maintained between the primary and secondary sides of the generators. The secondary heat produces the steam for the turbine power generator. The pressurized water in the primary system is used as a moderator to slow down the neutrons allowing a nuclear reaction to occur in the core and to transfer the heat generated during the reaction to the steam generators.

Alstom’s $448 million contract will include the engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning of the 1,750 MW turbine island, including the Arabelle steam turbine, which will be the largest the company has ever constructed. The generator, the condenser, the moisture separator reheaters, and auxiliary equipment needed to convert steam produced by the nuclear reactor into electrical power are also in the scope of the contract. The turbine island at Flamanville will be designed to operate for 60 years under exacting standards of reliability and availability. The new power plant is scheduled to go into operation in 2012.

Arabelle turbine technology is currently installed in four 1,550 MW units in the EDF nuclear power plants in Chooz and Civaux, both in France, and is being installed in the expansion project at Ling Ao power station in China.

The Flamanville-3 Unit will be use by EDF to validate the new EPR concept and design. It is not a revolutionary reactor design but an optimized version of pressurized water reactors currently in operation, which have demonstrated efficiency, enhanced safety specifications, and is environmentally cleaner than previous generations. Starting in 2020, the 58 existing nuclear reactors operating in France are due to be replaced and the Flamanville project will be the proven base model for the development of replacement units.

The $385 million contract awarded to Bouygues covers the engineering and main civil works for the construction of all industrial buildings on the site, with a special focus on the containment building and the turbine house. The contract schedule gives 54 months from first concrete poured to project start-up. Over 1,000 people will be employed during the construction and 400,000 cubic meters of concrete will be poured. Construction will commence in late 2007 following a nuclear construction operating license and a main civil construction permit being given to EDF. The company, the world’s largest power utility, already operates nineteen nuclear sites generating 88% of the company’s electrical power.

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