The scope of the activities will be increased and will include additional services.

Maliaño , 26 of December, 2017.- Enusa, Equipos Nucleares and Enwesa have decided to joint their efforts to provide integrated solutions in the fuel management market through the reorganization of their A.I.E. , that from now on will be called ‘Enusa-Ensa A.I.E.’.

Through this new reorganization, the scope of the services provided will be increased and will cover different activities, like handling of fresh and irradiated nuclear fuel, fuel inspection for leak detection, characterization, classification, conditioning and/or repair of irradiated fuel assemblies, load and handling of spent fuel casks and canisters, and providing engineering services in the field of design and licensing spent fuel casks for dry storage and transportation.

In addition, this association will provide a set of integrated solutions in the spent fuel management market, with a current growing demand in Spain, Europe and the rest of the world. Furthermore, the new A.I.E. will enhance the capacity of Ensa, Enusa and Enwesa to comply with the specific requirements of the nuclear operators and regulators, in a challenging and demanding nuclear sector.

ENSA , as part of the AMW consortium, has achieved a key F4E milestone: the machining of two inner shell plates – the first pieces to be manufactured at ENSA – has been completed. These plates will make up the longest of the segments of the ITER Vacuum Vessel’s sector 3, and measure each 6 metres long, 1.5 metres wide, and has a thickness of 60 millimetres. The plates are made up of the special ITER grade stainless steel. The long length of each plate has entailed a number of challenging steps involving cleaning; cutting and machining of holes which will house the so-called flexible housings ; as well as carrying out a wide variety of inspection techniques in order to detect the presence of defects, characterise findings, and measure without causing any damage to the plates themselves . What makes this work additionally challenging is the fact that the flatness tolerance is very tight – only a 0.4 mm variatio

n in 6 metres is permitted. With the right techniques, the necessary flatness tolerance for the plates has been achieved, even despite that the longer the length of the piece, the more difficult it is to attain the same overall flatness.

“This milestone achievement shows the commitment of ENSA as part of the AMW consortium to the delivering Europe’s Vacuum Vessel contribution and its key role in the success of the Vacuum Vessel manufacturing”, says Rafael Treviño, Director General of ENSA.

“F4E is pleased with ENSA’s performance: they keep their commitment whilst anticipating and mitigating issues. ENSA has lived up to its reputation of being one of the best European companies in the nuclear field”, says Francesco Zacchia, Project Manager for F4E’s Vacuum Vessel Team.

COROMA European project seeks to develop a new concept of intelligent, modular and flexible industrial robots, capable of executing multiple processes and manufacturing metallic and composite parts for demanding sectors as aeronautics, shipbuilding or power generation. The Advanced Technological Center of Ensa will carry out the tests of the robot for this latter case.

The initiative, which started in late 2016 and will conclude in October 2019, has the participation of a total of 16 companies, research centers and universities from seven different countries.

COROMA has a budget of more than 7 million euros, 6 of them have been funded by the European Commission through the program to boost research and innovation Factories of the Future, within the frame of the multi annual program Horizon 2020.

The technical team will work to ensure that the design of the human-robot interface will fast programming. The modularity of the COROMA robotic system will allow it to adapt to the specific requirements of different manufacturing companies.

This Project has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 723853.

Equipos Nucleares S.A., S.M.E. shipped its first cask ENUN 24P to China that arrived to Shanghai in the middle of May and to Daya Bay plant at the end of the same month.

This is the first component for the Chinese market whose design, manufacture and supply has been realized completely by the cantabrian company. 15 years ago, Ensa made its first incursion but it was with the manufacture of two casks of other design.

The client, URC , requested Equipos Nucleares a cask for the transportation of the spent fuel of two plants, Daya Bay and LingAo, located in the south-east of China, to other pools of intermediate storage located in Lanzhou zone.

The ENUN 24P is a double purpose cask, designed for both, spent fuel transport and storage, it is able to transport 24 non damage fuel elements type PWR.

To adapt the existing requirements on the transportation route through China, Ensa has had to optimize the design of the standard trunnion of its casks, to satisfice the requirements of the Chinese Regulatory Council.

Otherwise, Ensa have realized the design and development of the charge auxiliary equipments, very technically advanced, to manipulate the cask with all the guarantees and facilities.

In China, the cold tests will be carried out and local personnel will be trained, who were previously trained in January and February 2016 by the cantabrian company.

Ensa received the approval of the Energy State Secretary for its cask ENUN32P destined to the transport of combustible elements with degree of burning of up to 45,000 MWd / MtU.

The design of this dual-purpose cask allows the storage and transportation of up to 32 spent fuel elements , as well as components associated with the core.

This cask increases the portfolio of Ensa in this line of fuel management and its capabilities to attend the market needs.