Two treatment stations to improve the quality of the liquid effluents of the zirconium specialist Framatome

December 03rd 2021

Two liquid effluent treatment stations to improve the quality of the effluents of the Jarrie site of Framatome, the French zirconium specialist and a key actor in the nuclear industry.

John Cockerill Environment will supply two liquid effluent treatment stations to Framatome, a major player in the energy sector. These new facilities will enable Framatome to meet the growing demand for zirconium and derived products in the nuclear sector and high-tech industries such as aeronautics, medical, optics and electronics.

Concerned about the environment, Framatome initiated AQUAE, a project aimed at improving the QUALITY of liquid effluents at its site in Jarrie in Isère, France. The zirconium sponge produced on site enables the production of tubes for nuclear power plant fuel. With a third of the world’s zirconium that is produced here, thanks to a process that is unique in the world, the effluents to be treated represent several hundreds of thousands of m³ per year.

Design, construction and installation of this large-scale project 

The new liquid effluent treatment facilities to be supplied by John Cockerill will increase and secure Framatome’s production capacity. They will be built on a site classified as “SEVESO high threshold”, the European classification awarded to establishments presenting a risk of major accidents.

Including the design, construction and installation, this large-scale project provides for:
– the construction of a unit treating the effluents of one of the site’s two activity sectors ;
– the construction of a new station which will pre-treat part of the effluents from one of the workshops on the site ;
– the construction of buffer tanks which will contribute to the proper functioning of the treatment units.

To carry out this project, two physio-chemical treatment lines (coagulation, flocculation, settling) will be installed with a single stage completed by tertiary filtration and resin finishing treatment for the first line and a double stage with filtration finishing for the second line. Both stations will be preceded by buffer tanks.

Our expertise combined

Framatome selected John Cockerill Environment for its experience in the execution of projects with high technical and scheduling challenges, its operational excellence and its management of safety and industrial risks. For the purposes of the project, John Cockerill was able to bring together its specialists in industrial water treatment, John Cockerill Proserpol in France, and its experts in piping and metal structures, John Cockerill Services, based in Corbas (France).

The start-up of the first installations is scheduled for September 2022. Once again John Cockerill is positioning itself as a partner of the key players in the energy transition and the decarbonization of industry.