Standpoint of the EDF operator of nuclear power plants

Safety and competitiveness are the sine qua non conditions to the durability of the nuclear industry in France, as in the other countries involved in electronuclear programs. Improving safety, increasing availability and mastering the costs are inseparable and interactive aims, and the cooperating actions are to be managed simultaneously. Another aim is the undivided attention given to radiation protection. The average annual collective dose per unit has slightly decreased since 1993 despite an increase in the circuit activity and the volume of the works. This result is not thoroughly satisfactory if compared to the performances carried out abroad on similar reactors. EDF has therefore decided to revise the establishments of contracts with the contractor companies on the following bases: - a lasting partnership bases on common aims, mutual obligations, and shared benefits; - complete and better integrated services, giving the companies a greater responsibility on the means to be implemented to achieve those aims; - pluriannual contacts. enabling the companies an improved insight of the future load, and thus giving them the opportunity to invest (in personnel training, in tools or in innovation processes, etc.); -permanent research in the field of the best technologies available in France and abroad, through supplier diversification and international experience feedback. (AUTHOR)