AFICEP and POLYMERIS at the World Nuclear Exhibition

AFICEP and Polymeris at the World Nuclear Exhibition
A look back at the world's largest civil nuclear exhibition!

 

The 2023 edition of the World Nuclear Exhibition took place at Paris-Villepinte from November 28 to 30. 20,000 visitors from 76 countries, 780 exhibitors from all over the world, start-up villages, numerous projects and innovations presented, an enthusiastic atmosphere - all of this demonstrates the renewed vitality of the civil nuclear industry! Some twenty players from the elastomer sector were exhibiting, highlighting the functionalities of our materials in sealing, water storage and protection.

WNE 2023 represented the end of the nuclear taboo. "It's a comeback: countries that wanted to say goodbye to nuclear power are changing their minds, some are building, and the appetite is growing, in China, France, the United States, Canada, Poland..." emphasized Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA). WNE 2023 marked a change in attitudes, an historic turning point confirmed a few weeks later at COP28. Civil nuclear power is now seen as one of the decarbonized electricity solutions to combat global warming.

France, the UK, the USA, Canada, China, Korea and Russia are all in the race for "small modular reactors" (SMRs) and 4th-generation reactors known by the acronym AMR (advanced modular reactors). These new reactors are a solution to the intermittent nature of renewable energies (ENR), and will replace the coal- and gas-fired power plants used today, which emit high levels of CO2 .

NUWARD (nuclear forward) is a 170 MWe SMR project led by EDF with a consortium comprising EDF, TechnicAtome, Naval Group, CEA, Framatome and Tractebel. Construction of France's 1st SMR is scheduled for 2030.

By 2030-35, the aim is to relaunch a French industry that is a leader in Europe, with a focus on industrial sovereignty, innovation and projects, and value chain creation. 100,000 new recruits are planned between now and then!

The French elastomer industry was represented at WNE by processors such as the EFIRE group, CNIM, Exsto-Sterne, Technetics, Hutchinson with its specialist distributor Escudier, Musthane, Pronal, Piercan, Ouvry, ... cable manufacturers such as Nexans and Prysmian, and suppliers such as Elkem, Mersen and Pinette Emidecau.

 

We also met our member Kemica Coatings, present on the Centre-Val de Loire regional stand.