French nuclear operator EDF ties up with Canadian, Czech, Indian firms

French nuclear operator EDF announced on Tuesday it was signing a series of cooperation agreements with Canadian, Czech, Indian and French partners to secure local supply chains and suppliers essential for future nuclear projects.

EDF signed a letter of intent with Ontario Power Group (OPG) at the World Nuclear Exhibition in Paris to launch a joint assessment for the potential development of EPR technology in the province of Ontario and other Canadian regions.

A cooperation agreement was also signed with Czech companies to ensure the localization of activities and supply chain to aid EDF’s potential involvement in the Dukovanky EPR1200 project in the Czech Republic.

The company had previously submitted an offer at the end of October for the engineering, purchasing, construction and commissioning services of the reactor.

In India, EDF concluded a cooperation agreement with BHEL to “maximize the local content” of a proposed project to build six EPR reactors in Jaitapur.

EDF said it also plans to continue looking for sites for its international projects with French engineering company Egis, which is already working on Hinkley Point C in Britain and plans to create an engineering platform in India with EDF and others.

“The signing of these industrial cooperation agreements clearly demonstrates our ambition to secure robust partnerships with local supply chains for EPR-technology-based projects, as well as for NUWARD SMR,” EDF CEO Luc Remont said in a press release.

The NUWARD SMR project is a smaller-sized nuclear reactor project set to produce 170 megawatts (MW) per unit compared to the some 1.3 gigawatt (GW) EPR2 reactors intended to increase the flexibility of power supply.