TechnicAtome turns 50

The TechnicAtome story began on June 16, 1972, with 150 employees from the CEA’s Reactor Core Construction Department, joined in 1974 by the team from the CEA’s Nuclear Propulsion Department. Their mission was to build research reactors and equip France with nuclear-powered submarines.

While the Redoutable had just entered active service in December 1971, the young company went on to build the next five ballistic missile submarines (SNLEs). From then on, TechnicAtome took on a growing number of projects. It pioneered innovation with the Rubis-class nuclear attack submarines (SNAs), which featured a new design for highly compact reactors. Compactness would become TechnicAtome’s hallmark.

After several years of expanding its expertise into non-nuclear fields during the 1980s and 1990s, TechnicAtome refocused on its core business: nuclear propulsion and research reactors. The challenge was to simultaneously design the reactor rooms for the new generation of SSBNs and for the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle. TechnicAtome found the solution with the K15 reactor, which was installed on Le Triomphant in 1997 and subsequently on all others in the series. The aircraft carrier itself entered service in 2001, equipped with two K15 reactors.

As TechnicAtome joined the AREVA Group, two reactor projects were launched: the test reactor, designed for nuclear propulsion, and the Jules Horowitz Reactor (RJH). The latter is intended to deepen understanding of how materials behave under irradiation. The RES achieved its first chain reaction in 2018, while the RJH is still under construction. Eventually, it will also produce radioisotopes for medical use.

In the field of naval propulsion, as part of the Barracuda program, TechnicAtome is committed to designing and building the reactor compartments for six nuclear-powered submarines over a 25-year period. The first in the series, the Suffren, was delivered to the Navy in November 2020 and entered into force in June 2022.

In 2017, TechnicAtome reestablished its unique identity and took on new challenges: the design and construction of six new third-generation missile-launching submarines, as well as the reactor for the future aircraft carrier, which require increased power output.  TechnicAtome is also participating in the Nuward SMR project, a small modular reactor developed in partnership with EDF, Naval Group, and the CEA.

Exciting years lie ahead.