Framatome opens €25M additive manufacturing centre for nuclear and defence components

Framatome has inaugurated a €25 million, 6,000 m² additive manufacturing centre at its Romans sur Isère site in France, operational since May 2026. The facility, named after Admiral Bernard-Antoine Morio de l'Isle, houses both wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) and laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) systems, enabling production of metal parts from a few kilograms to several tons, with dimensions up to five meters in diameter. MX3D confirmed as the WAAM technology provider, supplying systems capable of producing critical components such as 1-ton impellers and large structures weighing 20–25 tons. A team of 20 personnel will staff the centre, which also includes R&D, process qualification, and training functions.

This investment signals a deliberate move by a nuclear prime contractor to internalise AM production capacity rather than rely solely on external service bureaux. Framatome's dual-process strategy - combining WAAM for large-scale, lower-complexity structures with LPBF for finer, qualification-intensive parts - mirrors the value-chain logic seen in aerospace primes like GE Aviation and Safran. The nuclear sector has historically been slower than aerospace to adopt AM due to stringent regulatory qualification requirements and long asset lifecycles, but this facility directly addresses those barriers by embedding qualification workflows on-site. The defence angle is equally significant: Framatome explicitly cites sovereignty and supply-chain security, aligning with the broader European push to reduce dependency on non-EU suppliers for critical energy and defence components.

For the AM industry, the practical signal is that large-scale WAAM has crossed from demonstration projects into operational production for safety-critical nuclear applications. MX3D's role as the core WAAM supplier validates its technology for the highest regulatory environments, but the real execution challenge lies in Framatome's ability to repeatably qualify parts through nuclear-grade certification processes. The centre's success will be measured not by its machine capacity but by how many components move from prototype to qualified production within the next 24 months.