Nuclear: ETDE descends 500 metres underground!

ETDE has signed a renewal contract for 5 years with Andra, the national radioactive waste management agency, to perform maintenance of the site at Bure (Meuse/ Haute Marne) which includes an underground laboratory used to test the concept of storage at a depth of 500 metres.

Since 2007, a team of about twenty GET Sud (Mechanical, Process, Electrical and HVAC South) employees have been looking after the maintenance of the equipment galleries (piping, electricity, mechanical equipment, GTC (central technical control) and 6 passenger- and freight-lifts going down to 500 metres underground.

Founded on a study of a layer of clay soil recognised for its containment properties, this concept of deep storage concerns high-activity and medium-activity long-lived (up to several hundreds of thousands of years) radioactive wastes. The security issues are therefore essential and necessitate the constant mobilisation of ETDE’s teams on the site which operates in three shifts, 6 days a week.

Wind energy has the wind in its sails at ETDE

ETDE is installing the electrical utilities for the future Léffincourt windmill farm situated in the Ardennes. The farm, whose construction started in February, will include 16 wind turbines of 2 megawatts. This project was awarded by Areva, (Transmission and Distribution Division).

After grounding the wind turbines, installation of the utilities will require the digging of over 10 km of trenches. In early June, 12 km of high voltage and fibre-optic cables will be laid to connect the wind turbines to the 3 distribution substations. Installation will be completed in the autumn of 2010 and will produce enough electrical energy to power 2000 homes.

In France, ETDE has a 15% share of the market for connecting wind turbines. Since 2008, TP de Réseaux has installed 121 wind turbines throughout France.