Tell us about the project you submitted to France Relance

The project submitted to France Relance is called “Innovative NDT for the lifetime extension of nuclear installations and new nuclear projects.”

The main goal of this project is to develop and standardize innovative technological solutions in order to provide answers to the new challenges the industry faces. We need testing methods that would be more efficient, faster, more reliable, less polluting, with fewer radiological risks and with guaranteed data traceability. Moreover, some of these technologies could be applied to other industries as well (oil refineries, hydroelectric plants…) 

How is this project important for the future of the nuclear industry?

From the beginning of their construction up until their decommissioning, nuclear power plants age. Many control operations have to be implemented in order to ensure the safety of the facility and the security of the personnel. We need ever more accurate and in-depth tests if we want to extend the lifetime of the nuclear facilities, decrease the environmental impacts and minimize the personnel’s exposure to radiation.

EDF needs companies capable of coming up with new industrial solutions. The testing techniques must become more efficient and precise, not only in order to be able to detect tinier defects, but also for our estimates to be less conservative (e.g. deviation between an experimental artifact and an actual defect).

Onet Technologies will, through this project, meet the new needs of the nuclear industry by developing and standardizing innovative control processes, including for welding control and corrosion detection applications for maintenance, the end goal being the lifetime extension of nuclear installations.