The Graphite Industrial Demonstrator (Démonstrateur industriel graphite, DIG) near Chinon (Indre-et-Loire) is a key installation for graphite reactor decommissioning, allowing physical and digital tests to be carried out on models of these reactors. Construction was completed at the end of 2021 and involved a consortium of local contractors (80% of purchases and services were local); operation will provide a score of long-term jobs.
| European project |
Decommissioning scenarios and resources tested using the DIG will be developed as part of the EU’s 2020-2023 Inno4Graph project; this brings together 13 entities involved in decommissioning including CEA, ENRESA (Spain), SOGIN (Italy), and LEI (Lithuania) as well as EDF subsidiaries Graphitech and Cyclife Digital Solutions. |
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| IEAE |
The DIG is the first EDF installation to receive the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Collaborating Centre label. |
EDF plays a key role in supporting the development of France’s nuclear industry, its third-largest industrial sector.
| Being present in major nuclear power projects |
The excell plan, which was announced in December 2019 and launched in spring 2020, aims to enable the French nuclear industry to restore the most stringent standards and the highest levels of quality and excellence to be at the forefront of major nuclear projects. Together with the rest of the nuclear industry, EDF is now entering the third phase of excell, consolidating results to date and extending the actions undertaken over the long term to achieve the best possible industrial standards. Practically, this goal takes the form of 30 commitments to be honoured by mid-2022, two-thirds of which are direct continuations of those made in 2021. (1) |
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A large number of actions were initiated and accelerated in 2021 to address issues including the attractiveness of the industry, capitalising the knowledge of those leaving the industry, and accelerating the experience and skills of those joining it.
| Job and Skills Development Commitment (EDEC) |
A Job and Skills Development Commitment (Engagement de développement de l’emploi et des compétences, EDEC) has been put in place across the industry; this proactive policy is aimed at delivering a clearer picture of the sector’s jobs, training, and attractiveness. For the EDF group, this entails engaging in local strategic workforce planning to provide assessment and information about needs and potential labour shortages, destined for training and employment stakeholders in each region. |
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| Nuclear Industry University (UMN) |
The French Nuclear Industry University (Université des métiers du nucléaire, UMN) was established on 27 April 2021 by 12 founding members: France’s Nuclear Industry Strategic Committee, 5 major clients (EDF; CEA; Orano; Framatome; ANDRA), and 6 organisations (France Industrie; GIFEN; Nuclear Valley; UIMM; UFE; the Pôle Emploi employment agency). The mission of the UMN is to stimulate training projects, in particular at regional level. It has also played a role in the selection of projects taken up by BPI as part of the France Relance recovery programme, and will continue to support these. |
| Experienced employees |
The target proportion of experienced employees in EDF recruitments for its “new nuclear” business was raised to at least 40% of all such recruitments. In 2021, this target was exceeded, with experienced profiles accounting for 52% of the total. EDF has joined forces with the aerospace industry to implement an “EDF Aerospace Challenge” for the recruitment of experienced employees affected by redundancies in the latter. |
| New hire journey |
EDF has implemented a four-month in-field onboarding journey for all new hires without prior experience in the new nuclear sector to accelerate their acquisition of experience and upskilling. Some 150 of the 500 new arrivals in the New Nuclear Engineering and Projects Department (DIPNN) benefit from this scheme every year. |
| Crossover career moves |
Crossover career moves between production, engineering, construction, manufacture, project functions and cross-disciplinary jobs have been developed and defined, enabling employees to consolidate their skills and use them constructively on return to their original entity. The goal for 2021 was to have 520 such transfers, up 20% compared to 2019; the actual figure was 839. |
| Knowledge Management |
2021 also saw the rollout of a Knowledge Management policy throughout EDF engineering and Framatome, in the form of a best practice guide to disseminate knowledge backed by powerful resources to support these practices. These include a digital encyclopaedia, a knowledge-showing database (wiki) accessible for EDF, EDF Energy, and Framatome, and a search engine (currently under development). |
| Creation of HEFAÏS |
Given the specific challenges in terms of skills and quality, a “welding plan” has been put into place to provides structure for the training and qualification of welders intervening on worksites in the nuclear industry. As part of this scheme, at the initiative of EDF, Naval Group, Orano, and CMN and with the support of the authorities, the Higher School of Welding Training (Haute école de formation en soudage, HEFAÏS) was born in February 2021. The school will offer practical, innovative training courses in industrial workshops to achieve excellence in welding, working with beginners, jobseekers, and experienced employees, and is open to women and men in Normandy and elsewhere with the aim of making them the best welders in France for the nuclear and naval industries. HEFAÏS will be hosting its first excellence training courses in the Cotentin region in September 2022. |
