Nuclear and power plants

After a low in the 1990s, recent years have seen the worldwide nuclear industry regain momentum and experience important growth. However, the accident at Fukushima damaged public opinion of nuclear energy. It prompted a review of safety policy, particularly risk management practices, in all countries that produce or use nuclear energy. Since the accident, all countries have reinforced their regulatory frameworks, and have created new rules or updated standards and codes.
Efectis is a reference expert in the nuclear field, with regard to fire testing, fire safety engineering, and the fire behavior of construction products. Efectis has more than 20 years’ experience in the nuclear field. It has worked extensively on fire safety in nuclear plants, becoming a major partner of nuclear operators for all fire safety related issues through the activities of its accredited fire laboratories and fire safety engineering:
• Qualification of fire products (such as doors, penetration seals, and dampers) according to the combination of actions (water tightness, air tightness, earthquake, displacements, fire resistance, durability, and interoperability of fire protection products for maintenance).
• Production of performance diagrams of fire products according to the EPRESSI method, which is today accepted by the nuclear authorities and is applied in EPR-NPP with a view to assessing the fire resistance performance of products under real fire conditions in order to justify its effectiveness in relation to the degree of fire risk in NPP.
• On-site diagnoses to attest the fire resistance performance of fire protection systems and products.
• Maintenance of products (assessment of aging conditions and fire resistance degree and determination of action plan for maintaining fire resistance performance).
• Fire risk analysis and fire modeling studies (assessment of the degree of nuclear safety in case of fire, and appropriate fire protection solutions).
• Fire behavior and stability studies of structural elements of nuclear facilities based on:
• Standard ISO-fire curve analysis
• Real fire curve analysis.
• Fire safety design of nuclear facilities and assistance in designing fire protection systems (active and passive).
• Training in nuclear fire safety standards (NFPA, AFCEN, etc.).