CENTRE

Purpose: production of electricity and plutonium

Installations : Chinon A1, A2, and A3 shut down, B1, B2, B3,

Type : natural uranium graphite gas reactors and pressurized water reactors (class CP1)

Location : Avoine (Indre et Loire), on the Loire west of Tours

Operator : Electricité de France

Period of operation : since 1963, A1 (1963-1973), A2 (1965-1985), A3 (1966-1990), B reactors went critical in 1982, 1983, 1986, and 1987 respectively

Fuel : natural uranium metal, low-enriched uranium oxide, mixed uranium and plutonium oxides

Nuclear materials : uranium, plutonium, tritium

Nominal capacity : graphite gas 760 MW electric net (70, 210, and 480 MW respectively); pressurized water 3620 MW electric net (905 MW each)

Actual production : total at the end of 2000, 61.8 TWh gross plus (3.1, 27.2, 31.44 TWh) plus 342.7 TWh net (97.0, 92.5, 78.3, 74.9 TWh net respectively)

Decrees dated 21 July 1998 authorized EDF to use Mox in the four B reactors. They are the first reactors for which EDF has gone through a public inquiry to receive authorization for Mox. Other reactors in which EDF uses Mox were authorized for Mox before they started operation.

EDF’s graphite gas reactors furnished plutonium for weapons, but the quantity of plutonium is not known. According to one estimate, Chinon 1 furnished about 200 kg of plutonium of military quality, and the six civilian graphite gas reactors including Chinon 1, between 500 and 2000 kg in total [Albright 97].

Chinon A1 has been partially dismantled to level 1 and the core confined in a steel-concrete envelope. The building that houses it, a metallic sphere, has been transformed into a museum that is open to the public. Andra estimates that the total quantity of contaminated or radioactive materials to be taken apart amounts to 3680 t plus 1600 drums of technological waste. The 3680 t include a pile of 1100 t of contaminated graphite. Complete dismantling is planned for 2027 [Andra 00].

Chinon A2 was partially dismantled to level 2 in 1992. The reactor block, which contains 1800 t of graphite, is confined. Four buildings on the site house steam generators and the cut-up primary circuit. The estimated mass of all the active or contaminated material, including the graphite, is 7945 t, plus 2000 drums of technological waste. Total dismantling is planned for 2039.

Partial dismantling of Chinon A3 to level 2 began in 1997. Total dismantling is planned for 2044. The mass of contaminated and activated materials, including 2500 t of graphite, is estimated to be 7560 t plus 3700 drums of technological waste. The activity of the graphite is an estimated 7800 TBq .

A class 1 dump at Champteusse-sur-Baconne (Maine-et-Loire) occasionally, between 1987 and 1992 , received radioactive waste from the Chinon and Saint Laurent des Eaux power plants. Mass activity of the 190 t of radioactively contaminated waste at the dump is less than 1 Bq/g according to Andra [00].

ATELIER DES MATÉRIAUX IRRADIÉS ( Irradiated materials workshop, AMI)

The workshop was put into service before 1965, and is composed of high activity cells. 

The workshop is essentially concerned with assessment and examination of PWR irradiated fuel elements and radioactive materials. Formerly the workshop mainly studied UNGG fuel elements .

Following an incident 26 April 1996, not reported to DSIN until 15 May 1996, DSIN ordered a safety review of the installation. AMI had become “timeworn” and also had undergone many modifications that “considerably complicated its safety-related provisions and systems.” These systems, DSIN said, “no longer comply with current and future requirements” in regard to safety. In 2000, DSIN decided not to allow the treatment of fuel that had been cooled for less than six months. DSIN approved the revision of the safety documents in October 2000.

EDF, after completing the required studies, decided to undertake temporary compensatory measures and to modify the installation in order to keep it operating until around 2030 (“projet AMI 2030”). The modification will require an authorization decree [DSIN 98].

In 2000 EDF gave DSIN a complete study of the installation's wastes. According to Andra, the wastes stored at AMI included highly radioactive, long-lived wastes (24.5m3 including absorbents and concrete blocks); wastes of moderate and low radioactivity (191.4 m3 including graphite and magnesium) and wastes said to be of very low activity [Andra 00].

                                                                                                              Revised 10/8/01

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