GDES France returns to work

During the shutdown caused by the pandemic, the energy sector has been working on the front line to guarantee supplies to thousands of European users. Slowly but surely, all workers and companies are returning to their normal routines under the strictest occupational health and safety protocols; and facility maintenance and improvement projects are also coming back online.

To build momentum, and to be proactive and efficient so that our clients can ramp up progress towards their goals, GDES is reinforcing its projects in France with 76 Spanish workers who are joining the GDES France teams during the months of May and June.

At present, 12 GDES workers specialising in surface treatments are undergoing specific training to join the team of almost 40 people that will be working at the Belleville nuclear power plant at the end of June. This is a project in which GDES will provide support in the application of coatings to improve the leak-tightness of the reactor building of this nuclear power plant.

In addition to this team, we are sending a backup team of specialists to resume our work at ITER, which has been delayed by the state of emergency declared during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other projects that will also receive additional backup from Spain to speed up and promote the resumption of services will be our metallisation projects on the MSRs at the Civaux (May) and Bugey (June) plants, the RRI SEC project at Blayais NPP for sandblasting and painting pipes in galleries, and the project for the mechanical-chemical removal of magnetite deposits in the MSR of Unit 5 of Gravelines NPP; and the integral maintenance of the storage tanks for effluents generated by the preventive cleaning of steam generators at the Nogent and Cruas nuclear power plants. A project on which GDES has been working since 2018 at various EDF plants in France and which was interrupted by the pandemic.

The work that we do enhances our clients’ facilities and therefore it is essential that we resume operations quickly and flexibly. Without doubt, the present moment demands that we demonstrate our commitment to providing added value in each of our services and to achieving, together with our clients, the momentum we need for the complete revival of the energy generation sector.