GDES has had the honour of being one of the two service providers invited by EDF to attend its annual PEX ACIER 2020 operational experience conference. This conference is centred on the exchange of experiences related to the maintenance of exchangers, water storage tanks and auxiliary equipment in nuclear facilities.

It was held in Paris on 22 and 23 January at EDF UNIE (Paris). During the conference, GDES had the opportunity to present the following activities carried out for EDF during 2019 to a committee made up of the technical directors, maintenance directors and engineering managers of various nuclear power plants owned by EDF, as well as to experts and leading agencies of the nuclear sector in France (DIPDE, UTO, CNEPE, UNIE, etc.):

• Elimination of iron oxide and silicon fouling in the residual heat removal (RHR) system exchangers of the cooling system of the BLAYAIS Nuclear Power Plant – Unit 2. (Presentation by Amparo Ponce, project engineer at GDES France in collaboration with UTO and Blayais NPP).
• Mechanical-chemical removal of magnetite deposits in the MSRs of Unit 5 of Gravelines NPP – a service that GDES has been providing exclusively since 2009. This is the third intervention of its kind to be carried out at a French nuclear power plant. GDES has previously provided this service at Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant (2009) and Bugey Nuclear Power Plant (2010-11). (Presentation by Amine Torchi, operations manager at GDES France in collaboration with UTO).
• Metallisation services completed for EDF in 2019. Services performed at the Bugey, Nogent, Belleville and Dampierre plants as a solution to erosion and corrosion on MSR equipment. (Presentation by Patrice Guerra, director of project development and coordination at GDES France).

Our invitation to this conference, organised by EDF to exchange operational experiences, was the ideal showcase for GDES to demonstrate its capacity for developing innovative solutions to the main players in EDF’s decision-making processes. An exceptional opportunity to highlight the ample experience of GDES in providing maintenance and surface treatment services to the French nuclear industry.