Framatome wants to provide nuclear fuel to live on the Moon and go (faster) to Mars

2023-11-10 09:00:00

After a Framatome Defense division in 2020, Framatome Healthcare in 2021, EDF’s 75%-owned industrial nuclear subsidiary, Framatome, announced in mid-October the creation of a Framatome Space. More of an umbrella brand for the company’s space-related activities than a new division, Framatome Space should enable the company “to consolidate partnerships in the United States and be present at the realization stages of major exploration programs”but also, “to bring new nuclear solutions to European space”, explains to L’Usine nouvelle Grégoire Lambert, vice-president of strategy at Framatome and head of Framatome Space. This money wants in particular to show Europeans, “that there are nuclear building blocks missing from the industrial part of these space programs” and that Framatome masters some of the technologies.

The manufacturer produces vessels, steam generators, control systems, controls and fuel assemblies for large civil nuclear reactors, particularly EPRs. It also has activities in defense, health and already has a foothold in space. “We already supply the space industry with domes for launcher tanks and hafnium for hardened alloys for spacecraft. With the creation of Framatome Space, we are moving up a gear”, explains Bernard Fontana, CEO of Framatome, in a press release. In its Jarrie factory in Isère, Framatome transforms zirconium into Hafnium with a process unique in the world.