Dear AFCEN members and experts,

The attendance at the AFCEN conference in March 2023, the AFCEN China week in November to mark 40 years of cooperation between China and France, and the World Nuclear Exhibition in Paris in November bear testament to the revival of the nuclear industry in France and around the world. The announcements made at COP 28 in Dubai also confirm this revival.
At the same time, the nuclear industry is facing a number of challenges : maintaining and extending the service life of the fleet of units in operation, revitalising nuclear power with the construction of 6 EPR2 reactors; and the emergence of projects for small reactors using different technologies in France, Europe and the rest of the world.
As AFCEN members, we should all commit to this new momentum and feel responsible for ensuring AFCEN can serve the nuclear industry and reinforce its performance through the quality of its publications.
Activity in 2023 followed on from the previous years, with a new edition of the RCC-CW (civil engineering) and the RCC-C (fuel) codes, new PTAN technical publications, guides to assess the knowledge of the codes (RCC-M, RCC-E), and the work leading to the recognition of the RCC-M code by the French safety authority.
In 2024, we will continue to roll out our strategic plan around the 3 major challenges identified : the editorial policy, the interaction with the main nuclear projects, operators and safety authorities, and finally the support to help industry comply with the codes. We will continue to strengthen our resources by welcoming the best experts amongst our members working for the nuclear industry.
I would like to thank all the members and experts for their commitment to the association and to AFCEN's values of Collaboration, Expertise and Responsibility.
On behalf of AFCEN, I would like to wish you all the very best for 2024 and look forward to seeing you at the next AFCEN Day, which will be held on March 21.

Laurent THIEFFRY
AFCEN Chairman