Framatome inaugurated a chromium-coating industrial pilot at its Paimboeuf manufacturing plant in France on [date], the company said, to industrialize its PROtect Enhanced Accident Tolerant Fuel (E ATF) technology.

The pilot applies chromium coatings to zirconium alloy cladding tubes by physical vapor deposition; the tubes are used in the manufacture of nuclear fuel assemblies. Framatome put the investment at around EUR30 million and designed the facility for a capacity of more than 100,000 chromium-coated tubes a year, a volume it said could change as the technology develops. Industrial qualification of the process is planned by the end of 2026, with production targeted to start in early 2027.

PROtect E ATF was developed by Framatome with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). It combines chromium-coated zirconium alloy claddings with uranium pellets enhanced with chromium oxide, the latter on operator request. Framatome says the coating increases oxidation resistance, improves mechanical performance at high temperatures and reduces hydrogen generation in a loss-of-cooling accident. The work is supported by France Relance and the U.S. Department of Energy.

First fuel-rod irradiations began in 2019 at the Gösgen plant in Switzerland and the Vogtle plant in the United States. The first complete PROtect E ATF fuel assembly was loaded at Calvert Cliffs in 2021, and from 2023 four Lead Fuel Assemblies went into EDF's French pressurized water reactor fleet under a joint program. In 2024 the technology completed a third 18-month fuel cycle at Vogtle, the first operating lifecycle of the world's first full-length PROtect E ATF fuel rods, and at Gösgen became the world's first ATF technology to operate with full-length fuel rods above 60 GWd/tU.