Afcen

Afcen

Afcen is an international association. Its members are companies from the nuclear or conventional sector (as long as they operate in the nuclear field) whose activities are related to the technical fields covered by the codes.

Afcen has two main activities:

• To write, update and codify precise and practical rules for the design, construction and monitoring in operation of equipment intended for industrial or experimental nuclear installations (RCC- and RSE- codes),
• To ensure the availability of accredited training courses to enable code users to acquire a high level of expertise, knowledge and practice of the AFCEN codes.

The international activity of AFCEN is oriented towards the achievement of the following main objectives:

1. To continue the development of working platforms for the nuclear industry in each area of use of the codes, mainly UK and China,
2. To continue the development of AFCEN in the world: in Asia (China, India), in the European Union (UK, Poland, Czech Republic,), South Africa and the Middle East by accompanying the projects of the French industry,
3. To integrate the feedback from the industrial practice of international users (United Kingdom and China in particular) and from the technical instructions relating to the certification of projects which have taken the AFCEN codes as a reference (Generic Design Assessment for Hinkley Point C for example),
4. To be attentive to the proposals for the evolution of the codes expressed by the participants of the CEN WS 64 which gathers the major actors of the European nuclear industry wishing to deepen their expertise on the AFCEN codes,
5. Continue the comparison efforts with other nuclear codes within MDEP (Multinational Design Evaluation Programme) and CORDEL (Cooperation in Reactor Design Evaluation and Licensing).

The AFCEN codes constitute a coherent body of rules which :

• covers a wide range of technical fields: mechanical, electrical and control, nuclear fuel, civil engineering, fire protection,
• has been enriched for more than 35 years by changes in safety requirements, technological developments and international feedback from its users,
• is part of a generic framework of nuclear installations, not specific to a particular project,
• can be adapted to specific local regulations in force in different countries,
• allows the whole nuclear industry of a country to be unified and federated around the same reference framework.