EDF’s Excell Plan: excellence, quality and rigour in the nuclear industry

Initiated by EDF two years ago, the Excell plan is a large-scale project that is in the process of breathing new life into the entire nuclear industry.

How did this initiative come about? What are the major challenges and objectives of this nuclear development project? We take stock of this action plan aimed at reinstating excellence, quality and rigour in the French nuclear industry.

 

What is EDF’s Excell plan?

The Excell plan is a project launched in the spring of 2020, following the pitfalls encountered during the construction of the Flamanville EPR, the first third-generation reactor in France, whose commissioning has been delayed by 10 years. At the time, Bruno Le Maire had summoned EDF to set up an action plan to turn around the nuclear industry.

This is how the Excell Plan was born, at the initiative of EDF. This project aims not only to respond to the government’s requests, but above all to restore the image of the nuclear industry and to re-establish “the highest level of rigor, excellence and quality” at all levels of the industry.

EDF’s strategic plan is based on 5 main areas:

• A level of quality and safety of nuclear facilities enhanced by standardization and replication;
• The development of skills in the sector;
• Guaranteed “first try” compliant manufacturing and construction;
• A partnership-based, results-oriented relationship with suppliers;
• State-of-the-art governance of nuclear projects.

To achieve these various objectives, a budget of 100 million euros has been allocated to the project.

 

What are the commitments of the Excell Plan?

The Excell plan includes 25 major commitments, to be fulfilled by mid-2022.

Here are a few examples:

• Rigorously evaluate the performance of the nuclear projects undertaken through the performance of a quarterly control;
• Achieve the level of manufacturing and production quality “the first time”;

• Boost training programs;
• Create a knowledge management tool to capitalize on knowledge;
• Implement a specific plan to strengthen the recruitment of welders and establish new quality standards;
• With the support of Gifen (French Nuclear Energy Manufacturers’ Association), encourage the ISO 19443 certification process (quality standard) for companies in the sector;
• Improving the competitiveness of the sector, thanks to the cross-functional support of Gifen;
• Create a result-oriented supplier relationship, with better risk sharing, simpler contracts that are better adapted to industrial practices, etc.;
• Put quality criteria at the forefront of supplier selection;
• Strengthen quality and safety through standardization and replication approaches.

Strengthening the training and upskilling of workers is one of the major objectives of the Excell plan. Indeed, it should be remembered that the nuclear sector has faced many times a shortage of skilled labour and suffers in general from a lack of attractiveness to young people.

 

Actions carried out as part of EDF’s Excell Plan

Since the launch of the Excell plan two years ago, 23 of the 25 commitments have already met or even exceeded their objectives, with deployment in many industrial sites (engineering centres, construction sites, new nuclear power plants, etc.)

Here are some of the actions carried out by EDF as part of the Excell Plan:

• The creation of the University of Nuclear Professions (UMN) in April 2021, which aims to enhance and boost the training offer in the nuclear sector and to provide a response to recruitment needs for essential professions (engineering, atomic engineering, welding, boilermaking, etc.)
  
• The implementation of the Control of Major Projects (each project is subject to a quarterly review led by the Chairman of EDF), in order to improve the governance of major projects.
• The development of 12 standards for first-time compliant manufacturing.
  
• Simpler contracts between EDF and its suppliers (launch of the Excell in quality plan between EDF and its 44 suppliers).
• Standardization and replication are placed at the forefront to guarantee the quality and safety of nuclear facilities: mandatory use catalogs have been produced to rationalize the use of equipment.
• The creation of the Cotentin Welding Training School (Hefaïs) in partnership with Orano (formerly Areva), CMN and Naval Group.

The 3rd phase of the Excell plan is thus being activated in parallel with the renewal of the French nuclear fleet : this is now the mission of EDF and the other players in the sector.

This last phase consists of strengthening the results and sustaining the actions deployed in order to achieve the highest standards in the industry. In the long term, EDF’s vision is to ensure that nuclear power continues to grow “to play its full role in the fight against climate change”. Nuclear power is indeed a major sector of industry: it is the third largest industrial sector in the country (nuclear electricity production corresponded, in 2021, to 67% of total electricity production in France – the share of nuclear power is therefore major in industry).

 

→ To find out more about the new nuclear industry and future projects, see our article” French nuclear fleet: state of play and future projects”.

 

→ To find out more about the actions taken, see the SFEN webinar* on the Excell plan: “The Excell plan to meet the industrial programme”

 

* French Nuclear Energy Society