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2. How does your organization take
advantage of Nuclear Industry Assessment
Committee (NIAC) and Nuclear Utility
Procurement Issues Committee to certify
safety related vendors?
AREVA actively participates as
a member of NIAC. The advantage to
AREVA of being a NIAC member is to
reduce both schedule and cost associated
with evaluating suppliers. We are able
to utilize NIAC audits in order to put
a supplier on our Approved Suppliers
List (ASL). However, this still does not
mitigate our responsibilities and program
relative to performance of that supplier
as discussed previously. In other words,
the roles of the QC Inspectors and
Procurement Engineers are not changed.
AREVA is a member of the Nuclear
Energy Institute (NEI) Infrastructure
Taskforce. This taskforce, under the
leadership of Carol Berrigan at NEI, is
focused on developing the supply infrastructure
in the U.S. As a member of that
taskforce, AREVA was a co-sponsor of
three supplier workshops in 2008, and we
are continuing this effort in 2009. These
workshops focus on providing companies
considering entering the market
with information about what it means to
be a commercial nuclear supplier. These
workshops describe “typical” nuclear
project requirements and operations and
provide QA information and resources,
ASME Code requirements, NRC requirements,
industry information, etc. These
have been extremely successful, with
over 400 supplier representatives attending
each workshop.
Additional outreach activities
include active participation in the major
trade shows in the power industry, giving
talks to various engineering societies,
many visits to suppliers’ facilities,
and a focused effort to locate and visit
Canadian nuclear industry organizations
and suppliers. Overall, our effort to reach
out to suppliers has been extremely
successful. We are confident that we now
have a diverse supply base to support the
U.S. EPR deployment.
3. How do you promote need for new
safety related vendors to the industry in
the United States and worldwide?
The supply of equipment and
materials for the construction of the U.S.
EPR plants is a joint effort between
AREVA and Bechtel. AREVA’s specific
focus is supply for the nuclear island
equipment. Bechtel’s focus is supply of
the turbine island equipment and supply
of construction bulk materials plantwide.
We have jointly created a complete
list of equipment and materials required
for construction of the plant. We have also
jointly identified multiple suppliers for
each commodity. There have been some
specific areas of concern over the past
few years, particularly heavy forgings,
but the supply chain should eventually
balance out with demand due to ongoing
industry-wide efforts to address this
issue. The current shortage for the U.S.
nuclear industry is suppliers that have the
appropriate 10CFR50 Appendix-B QA
program and ASME N-stamps. As an
example, the number of companies with
ASME N-stamps in 1984 was 400. By
2007 the number had decreased to 84.
Therefore, part of our challenge has
been to encourage existing suppliers to
obtain these certifications. So far, we
have been successful at this – through the
workshops -- but there is more work to
do. ASME has noted that the number of
applicants for N-stamps have increased
dramatically over the past six months,
which is an example of partial success.
We also have targeted companies that
manufacture specific critical components
to convince them to obtain the needed
certifications. A good example of this is
the increased availability of safety-related
diesel generators.
It should be noted that NSSS
companies, along with NEI, are all
focusing on obtaining a diverse supply of
safety-related equipment in the USA. The
combined effort of the entire industry is
producing the results needed to support
the first major deployment of nuclear
power plants in decades. As a result of all
of these efforts, there are now over 350
suppliers identified for the U.S. EPR
supply chain. We anticipate that about
150 primary suppliers will ultimately be
needed to support one EPR project.
4. What incentives are provided by your
organization to attract new vendors or
to re-certify old vendors so that they are
ready to supply safety related products
and services to the new build nuclear
power industry?
We have instituted a multi-tiered
program for evaluating suppliers
and ensuring that not only quality
requirements, but also scope, schedule
and cost are maintained. This starts
with performing an initial assessment
of the capabilities of a supplier to
determine if their products and services
fit the needs of the U.S. EPR design.
Following this, we perform a detailed
holistic assessment to look at all aspects
of the company, including quality,
safety, project management, financial
strength, experience, engineering, etc.
These assessments require many trips
to suppliers’ facilities throughout North
America. The final step is for Quality
Assurance to perform an audit to put the
supplier on AREVA’s ASL as a supplier
for the EPR plants.
The program does not stop once
a supplier is on the ASL. Procurement
Engineers work closely with suppliers to
ensure that the scope of work is performed
on schedule, within budget, and of high
quality. This is done in partnership with
Quality Control Inspectors. Finally,
Quality Assurance performs periodic
audits of the supplier to ensure that the
tenets of the quality assurance plan are
being followed.
For some of the most critical and
complex procurements we will assign
a full-time resident Expeditor at the
supplier’s facility.
34 www.nuclearplantjournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2009