May-June 2018 NPJ

Embracing Our Heritage By Gary Mignogna, Framatome Inc. Gary Mignogna Gary Mignogna is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Framatome Inc., the U.S. based subsidiary of global energy company Framatome Group, responsible for North America. Mignogna has 40 years of experience in the nuclear industry starting his career with Babcock & Wilcox in 1977 and progressing through technical, project, and leadership positions with the successor companies, Framatome and AREVA. He was selected to lead AREVA Inc. in June 2014. He has demonstrated a strong commitment to operational excellence by launching a number of initiatives including the AREVA Voyager program to develop up-and-coming leaders in engineering, the AREVA Engineering Training & Qualification Program to facilitate knowledge transfer specific to the nuclear industry, and the Project Management certification program to develop strength in project execution. Mignogna earned Bachelor and Master degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University, and received a Master of Business Administration from Lynchburg College. In 2015, Mignogna was inducted into the Drexel 100, which is the University’s alumni career hall of fame; and in 2016 received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Lynchburg College. A telephone interview on May 4, 2018 by Newal Agnihotri, Editor of Nuclear Plant Journal. Enhanced Strength as a Financially Sound and Forward-looking Company Introduction At the end of 2017, EDF took a 75.5% stake in the company that is now Framatome. Framatome Inc. is the company’s North American subsidiary. EDF will manage Framatome at arm’s length because we service their competitors and they buy from our competitors. 1. What are the major efforts being undertaken for the branding? I think the com- pany made absolutely the right move by adopting the name Framatome. After the split of the company, we considered many different names, but in the end, what made the most sense is to take the known and trusted brand. We’ve embraced that and it made rebranding much easier because our customers all over the world already know and respect that brand. We are hard at work making sure that our customers, vendors and other stakeholders know that our name has changed, but it’s the same people who have been servicing nuclear power plants for years – the same enthusiasm, passion and expertise. It’s resonating very well with our customers. 2. Are operations and maintenance provided by Framatome affected due to rebranding? The reason we took the name Framatome back is because we’re essentially the company we were when Framatome existed previously. Really, it was easy to split the company from an operational perspective because we were already divided up along those product lines just based on the legacy of the company. What’s been really nice is now that the company has gone through this transition, we’re a debt-free company, which allows us to reinvest in technology and innovation, and look at mergers and acquisitions. For example, we recently purchased the process automation division of Invensys, which was owned by Schneider Electric. We now have all the nuclear instrumentation and control (I&C) that was part of Invensys. This includes the intellectual property (IP) for the SPEC 200 analog systems, and an exclusive distributorship of the Foxboro I/A systems for balance of plant, like turbine controls and feed water controls. This also includes the safety and commercial Tricon system, as well as the IP for Nuclear Tricon. There are only two safety-related systems that currently have a Safety Evaluation Report (SER) for the operating fleet in the United States. One of them is Framatome with the TELEPERM XS system, and the other one was Invensys with the Tricon system, which we now own. 3. Are the teams who support this I&C work in Atlanta or Charlotte? This work was previously based in Atlanta and is now located in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Charlotte, North Carolina. When we purchased Siemens Nuclear, we acquired their nuclear I&C business, and they had their offices in Alpharetta, Georgia, which is just north of Atlanta. We eventually integrated that office into our locations in Lynchburg and Charlotte. With the acquisition of Invensys process automation, we acquired three new locations – in Montréal, Canada; Foxboro, Massachusetts; and Lake Forest, California. The employees who work there will stay in those communities. When you move locations, you run a risk of losing people, and when you just acquire a company, the last thing you want to do is lose anybody, especially at a high technology company. We were very fortunate that all of those employees chose to come with us in the acquisition. In addition to these locations, we have a small operation in China and contracts in South Korea. 4. Is Mitsubishi also one of the owners of Framatome? Yes, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has a 19.5% stake and Assystem, which is a French company, owns 5%. 22 NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2018