Inauguration of the MAI

Jacques Regaldo, Vice President of the  Division of Production  and Engineering of EDF, underlined the importance of such an institute in the nuclear strategy of EDF: “To bring together the skills of various nuclear operators and those of other research centers to apply to the science of materials and components that make up a nuclear power station, a crucial issue for us the operators. The stakes are even higher today than five or ten years ago because all of the operators of nuclear power stations ask the question of how to increase reactors’ lifetime beyond 40 years."

Organized as part of the EDF R&D Spring of Research, the event gathered some 150 invited guests to officially launch the operation of this crucial laboratory in support of the international strategy for renewal of nuclear energy. The invited guests came from Europe, Japan, USA... for the opening of the MAI building. They represent plant operators (EDF, E-ON, British Energy, TEPCO, Kansai, Vattenfall,...), manufacturers (AREVA, MHI, Hitachi), research and development centers (CEA, EPRI, UJV,...) as well as scientists from many different universities and French Engineering schools. Founded in 2008, the Materials Ageing Institute was initiated by EDF and two partners: EPRI, representing all 104 of the American nuclear power plants, and TEPCO, the largest electricity provider of Japan. Yves Bamberger, head of EDF R&D and Jean-Pierre Hutin, Director of the Production program within the EDF R&D, summarized the genesis of the MAI: "Our ambition in creating the MAI was to keep the ageing of plants under control, as it is unavoidable. To be able to manage the ageing process, it is necessary to know how to plan it, to model it and then understand it."

Jean-Pierre Hutin detailed the mission and ambitions of the Institute: "Thanks to contributions of its members and its own capabilities, the MAI allows the exchange of operational experience and experimental results among power plant operators. Our purpose is to support them in their choices of operation and maintenance strategies by supplying them scientific data on the corrosion and degradation of materials ". Thus, the MAI strives to understand the mechanisms responsible for the ageing by observation, mathematical modeling and a research program equipped with advanced experimental means. Among them, the most significant is the FEI-TITAN, the most powerful transmission electron microscope in the world. "The opening of the MAI today allows us to show these capabilities to the current and future partners of the Institute", Jan van der Lee said. "TITAN is our flagship and thanks to the specific structure designed and constructed for its platform, we can reduce the energy dispersion to 0.08 electro-volts and reach a resolution of 70 pm, a subatomic scale." Participants in the opening ceremony saw demonstrations of the TITAN as well as other microscopes available at the MAI. Supported by its founding members EDF, EPRI and TEPCO, the MAI already represents 50 % of the installed nuclear power in the world. Eighty researchers are active in 8 current research projects in the Institute (stress corrosion, corrosion by oxidation or by erosion, embrittlement of alloys by irradiation, thermal ageing, etc.). With initial EDF investment of 15 M€ (building and research equipment) and 9 M€ of annual research budget, MAI has the means to significantly contribute to its members’ efforts in plant life extension.

The inaugural speech of Jan van der Lee is available here.