The French Nuclear Safety Authority (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, ASN) has ordered EDF to check the manufacturing records of all components produced at Areva NP's Le Creusot forge and installed in operating nuclear power plants. EDF will have to submit the results of the review no later than 2 months before the restart of its reactors following planned refuelling outages and the review will run through the end of 2018.
In 2015, ASN discovered an anomaly in the steel composition of some parts of the vessel closure head and the vessel bottom head of the Flamanville EPR reactor, currently under construction in Normandy; these parts had been produced at Areva's NP Le Creusot forge. The ASN allowed Flamanville to start up (in 2018) but required the head of the reactor pressure vessel to be replaced by the end of 2024.
In June 2017, ASN identified 18 operational nuclear power plants in France, whose steam generators may contain high carbon concentrations, and ordered EDF to carry out additional inspections within three months.
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