Long-Term Service Contract for Angra 1 and 2

ELETRONUCLEAR (Eletrobrás Termonuclear S.A.), operator of Brazil's nuclear power plants, Angra 1 and 2, awarded a long-term service contract to Framatome ANP. The five-year contract, won in the face of stiff international competition, encompasses service and maintenance work for the two units that will be performed during their respective annual refueling outages. The majority of the work will be carried out at Angra 1.

In addition to services related to refueling and radiation protection, Framatome ANP's scope of activities includes assistance for maintenance work on the reactor coolant pumps and motors and valve actuators, other large pumps and pump motors as well as electrical components. Support for inspections and non-destructive material examinations also are included in the contract. This contract expands Framatome ANP's services to include Angra 1 (a Westinghouse-built 657 MWe PWR that started commercial operation in 1984) and positions Framatome ANP as a competent service partner in the Brazilian market.

The first maintenance activities for Angra 1 were performed, to the customer's full satisfaction, during the annual refueling outage in July 2002. As in the past, Framatome ANP and ELETRONUCLEAR personnel worked closely together.

Alliance Formed for I&C Upgrade

TXU Energy's Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station formed an alliance with Framatome ANP to oversee the planning and installation of the instrumentation and controls (I&C) upgrade from analog to digital technology at both of the Comanche Peak units. Framatome ANP will provide the engineering services and equipment to upgrade I&C systems with the industry standard TELEPERM^™ XS platform for safety-related applications and the TELEPERM XP platform for non-safety applications.

“This is not simply a contract for Framatome ANP to perform services at Comanche Peak,” James Kelley, TXU vice president and chairman of the alliance said. “This is a blueprint for Framatome ANP and Comanche Peak to work together in a spirit of partnership that benefits all concerned.”

Upgrading the turbine generator of unit 2 will be performed during their fall 2003 outage and similar work on unit 2 will be performed in the spring 2004 outage.

E.ON Awards Long-Term Contract for Ultrasonic Inspection of All of Its RPVs

In September 2002 the German utility E.ON contracted Framatome ANP to perform the in-service inspections on the reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) for all five of its PWR plants between 2002 and 2010. These inspections include mechanized ultrasonic examinations of the lower section of the vessel as well as the RPV closure head including the vessel head ligaments. The contract establishes a new contractual relationship with the Unterweser and Brokdorf plants and extends the scope of existing contracts with Grafenrheinfeld, Isar 2 and Grohnde - resulting in a total of eight additional RPV inspections.

The first such inspection was performed in the fall of 2002 at Unterweser by an inspection team from intelligeNDT (a subsidiary of Framatome ANP). An extensive inspection program for examining the lower section of the RPV - a critical path activity - was completed in the scheduled time to the customer's utmost satisfaction. In fact, intelligeNDT set the world record of 3.5 days for inspection of the RPV lower section at Germany's Convoy-series PWRs.

This new contract underscores E.ON's interest in maintaining a long-term relationship with a reliable partner for this important reactor service.

Framatome ANP Wins Contract Extension for Dounreay Reactor Dismantling

Framatome ANP, as one member of a consortium working on the dismantling of the experimental fast reactor at Dounreay in the United Kingdom, has been awarded additional work. The Dounreay reactor operated from 1958 to 1977. Dismantling began in the early 1980s.

The consortium, operating within an alliance with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), is composed of Framatome ANP, Cogema's subsidiary SGN, and three British companies: Strachan & Henshaw, Atkins Nuclear and Alstec. In this new contract, Framatome ANP will design and supply tools for the remote-controlled removal of the remaining fuel elements (977 rods) from the Dounreay reactor core.