Expert Européen du secteur naval de défense

A major player in nuclear-powered vessels for more than 40 years, DCNS is now making its skills and industrial resources available to the major players in electricity production and nuclear research.

In partnership with the CEA (Atomic Energy Commission) and AREVA-TA, DCNS has built 4 generations of French nuclear-powered submarines, 18 nuclear steam supply systems for submarines or aircraft carriers, and several prototype and test reactors. Given the scale of the needs in the civilian nuclear sector, DCNS is naturally making this industry one of its priorities for development.

As an equipment manufacturer, DCNS has already received orders for the EPR (European Pressurized Reactor), a third-generation reactor under construction at Flamanville (Manche): from EDF, two pieces of equipment built at its Cherbourg centre and from AREVA tank components built by its Nantes – Indret center. These two centers are also involved in the highly innovative ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project in Cadarache, for which they have already built models of the future vacuum chamber.

DCNS is responsible for the project management and “turnkey” delivery (engineering, construction and trials) of the machine building which will use the steam supplied by the RES, the CEA’s test reactor, on the Cadarache site, where it had already supplied the main equipment and the container for the nuclear steam supply system. The construction of this machine, starting in summer 2008, will involve staff from the Nantes – Indret and Brest centers and will end in mid-2010.

On the service side, finally, DCNS provides its expertise to different clients, for example for the renovation of working nuclear installations, engineering design projects, assembly or maintenance work and the implementation of special installations.

Nuclear propulsion: top performance

Nuclear propulsion allows submarines to operate underwater almost indefinitely, and gives aircraft carriers an unrivalled autonomy of operation. Our specialist engineers have particular skills in five major areas:

• Systems engineering which covers the interface constraints with the nuclear reactor and with the infrastructures needed in home ports, and the imperatives of nuclear safety and resistance to attack
• Integration of large complex structures, through a high level of cutting-edge expertise in project management and production resources, factories and worksites.
• Expertise in materials and major testing resources mainly at Nantes-Indret and Cherbourg
• Maintenance of nuclear steam supply systems in Brest and Toulon, which guarantees the readiness of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, the 6 nuclear attack submarines and the 4 French nuclear-powered missile-launching submarines.
• Radiological safety and environmental protection, essential during operations on nuclear installations.