A pilot workshop for the reprocessing of fuel from Rapsodie and for perfecting the process for treating fast neutron reactor fuel in general, AT1 operated from 1969 to 1979. Nominal capacity was 1 kg/d.

Before 1976, AT1 reprocessed more than a ton of Mox irradiated to 100,000 MWd/t, including an assembly from Phénix [Sauteron 76]. Total production before the definitive shutdown was 1,094 kg of plutonium.

Decontaminating to level 3 began in 1982 and was completed in 2001. A request for authorization to completely dismantle the building is to be included in the demand for dismantling of UP2-400 [ASN 09]. As of October 2009, the only authorization for dismantling of UP2-400 concerned HAO, which does not include AT1.

Put into operation in 1996, UP2 was originally devoted to reprocessing metal fuel from gas graphite reactors. However, starting in 1976 the plant treated alternatively gas graphite fuel and, with the help of the new head end, HAO (see below), light-water reactor fuel. The CEA had planned for a capacity of 800 t/yr of graphite fuel, but the plant never reached this level [Hirsch 90]. Between 1966 and 1987, UP2 reprocessed 4895 t of gas graphite fuel from the reactors of EDF and from Vandellos in Spain [Bourgeois 96]. In January 1987, UP2 reprocessed its last gas graphite fuel. The reprocessing of this fuel was afterwards carried out at Marcoule.

The plant was financed at least 50 percent by the military budget of the CEA. Title "1a) Production of nuclear materials, the military program law for 1965 to 1970" groups "the expenses of investment and operation related to the production of nuclear materials with military use. These expenses financed", among others, "the completion, the putting into service and the operation of the La Hague plutonium extraction plant, to the extent that this plutonium, extracted from irradiated fuel in EDF's reactors will be destined to military ends" [Tourain 80].

UP2 transformed at least a part of the plutonium nitrate produced, into plutonium metal. Plutonium metal is ordinarily used for military purposes, sometimes to meet the needs of research reactors. The facilities for the elaboration of plutonium metal by calciothermy and fluorination were dismantled in 1977 [Moreau 88].

Because of EDF's decision to abandon the gas graphite line, in favor of pressurized water reactors, the CEA constructed the HAO workshop (high activity oxide), attached to UP2, to carry out the reception, the cutting up, and the dissolving of fuel from light water reactors. HAO entered into service in 1976.

From 1976 to the entry into service of UP3, UP2 reprocessed oxide fuel coming chiefly from foreign clients. The CEA had provided for a nominal capacity of 800 t/yr of light water reactor fuel for UP2/HAO, but because of technical problems it became evident that this figure could not be reached. Even the reprocessing of 400 tons a year was only reached in 1987.

UP2/HAO reprocessed, from its entry into service in 1976 to the entry into service of UP2-800 in 1994, about 4100 t of light water reactor fuel. Between 1979 and 1984, UP2/HAO reprocessed 10 t of fuel from Phénix diluted with fuel from the Bugey 1 reactor [Bourgeois 96].

After the autumn of 1994, the high-activity workshops of UP2-400 were used only for special campaigns. UP2-400 reprocessed 44.4 t in two campaigns: one in 1996 of 12.4 t, and one in 1998 of 32t (4.9t of diluted French Mox). Unlike UP2-800 and UP3 until 2003, UP2-400 was authorized to reprocess Mox fuel and fuel from research reactors [DSIN 99]. In 1998, DSIN gave permission for UP2-400 to reprocess 24.4 t of mixed irradiated UO2 and Mox fuel from the Chooz plant.

Cogéma shut down the workshops at UP2-400 that purify uranium (Moyenne Activité Uranium, MAU) and plutonium (Moyenne Activité Plutonium, MAPu) in 2001-2002. DSIN, however, wanted a firm commitment to shut down permanently the high-activity reprocessing facilities [DSIN 99].  Cogéma announced December 30, 2003, that it had decided to stop all reprocessing in UP2-400 as of January 1, 2004 [ASN 05].

To carry out the operations involved in a Definitive Cessation of Operation (CDE) and to retrieve old waste, Cogéma set up a project that it named Orcade.  In 2005-2006, the operator dismantled certain equipment, in particular glove boxes and shears, in the workshops MAPu and HAO/Sud; and it asked to continue dismantling equipment in 2008.  

However, ASN repeatedly asked  Cogéma and its successor Areva NC to submit files seeking authorization to shut down definitively and to dismantle completely UP2/HAO and the old waste processing installation STE2. Areva filed the dossier for HAO in February 2008, and a public inquiry on the dossier was held in November of that year [ASN 08].  On 31 July 2009, in decree no. 2009-961, Areva NC was granted authorization  to begin the work of definitively shutting down and dismantling HAO (INB 80), operations known as MAD/DEM..  Nevertheless, HAO will continue to receive for reprocessing fuel that cannot be received at UP2-800 or at UP3 until  the reception facility in one of these installations has been modified.    

According to a regrouping  of facilities, outlined in the decree of 10 January 2003 that authorizes gaseous and liquid releases from La Hague, HAO consists of the following workshops: HAO/Nord (building 1080); HAO/Sud ( building 1082); the "Filtration building" (building 1085); the HAO silo (building 1081); and the organized storage of hulls, called SOC (buildings 1021, 1023, and 1220).  The aim of the dismantling is to prepare the buildings for non-radioactive industrial use.  

MAD/DEM is to be completed before 31 December 2033.  The work will take place in three stages:

-- In the first stage, 

           ----HAO/Sud, with the exception of cells 903 and 904, will be emptied and cleansed;  

           ----HAO/Nord will continue to receive, unload, and transfer fuel from test and research reactors; prepare this and other fuel for treatment; and remove from storage for treatment Mox fuel that has not been irradiated.  No later than 31 December 2015, the pools of HAO/Nord will still be filled with water but will otherwise contain only baskets that are empty or hold metal pieces;

           ----The waste in the HAO silo will be retrieved and packaged. By the end of stage 1 and at the latest in 2022, the silo will be empty.

--In the second stage, 

          ----HAO/Nord will be dismantled;

          ----Cells 903 and 904 of HAO Sud will be dismantled and cleansed; 

          ----The waste in SOC will be retrieved and packaged.

--In the third stage, the HAO silo, SOC, and the "Filtration building" will be dismantled.

I.D. UP2-800 (INB 117)

UP2-800, intended to reprocess essentially EDF fuel, had a nominal capacity of 800 t/yr of fuel until 2003 when it was authorized to reprocess up to 1000 t/yr. Cogema announced the entry into service of UP2-800 in 1994, when the R1 and R2 workshops entered into service. According to Cogema, UP2-800, unlike UP3, was designed to reprocess Mox fuel.

UP2-800 uses some of the workshops in UP2-400. Among the facilities built expressly for UP2-800 are:

--R7: vitrification workshop.  In R7 a furnace for fusion is being replaced by a cold crucible, to allow Areva to vitrify corrosive liquid waste from the uranium-molybdenum fuel used in early gas-graphite reactors [NucF 3.xi.08; ASN letter of 4.xiii.09].

Usine UP2-800 operated until 2001-2002 according to the following outline:

--reception and storage of irradiated fuel in pool NPH of UP2-400 (the pool overhauled to meet current safety standards) and pool C.  Unloading is under water;

--shearing and dissolving in R1;

--the separation of uranium, plutonium, and fission products and the concentration of fission product solutions in R2;

--the purification of uranium and plutonium in UP2-400’s MAU and MAPu respectively;

--the storage of fission product solutions in UP2-400’s SPF workshops 4, 5, and 6;

--the vitrification of fission products in R7; 

--the storage of plutonium dioxide (PuO2) in BST1 of UP2-400 (BST1 stores up to 10 t of plutonium in the form of PuO2);  xx

--the storage of uranyl nitrate at the STU of MAU. (The storage installation has a capacity of 900 m3, representing 360 t of uranium, divided among 18 tanks) [DSIN 98; Delange 90].  xx

Around 2001-2002 a new workshop in UP2-800, R4, replaced MAPu for the purification of plutonium [DSIN 99; ASN 05].  (For the replacement of MAU see below.)

I.E. UP3 (INB 116)

The UP3 plant, like UP2 had a nominal capacity of 800 t/yr of fuel until 2003, when it was authorized to reprocess up to 1000 t/yr.  It was prefinanced by contracts that twenty-seven foreign operators of nuclear reactors had made with Cogema for the reprocessing of about 7000 tons of irradiated fuel over a period of ten years. The electricity companies are German, Belgian, Japanese, Dutch, Swedish, and Swiss. The plant went into industrial service in 1990. Although the plant was not originally designed to treat Mox, Cogéma, in 2003,  obtained authorization to reprocess Mox in it as well as in UP2-800.

Among the installations are:

--T0: dry unloading of irradiated fuel;

--Pools D and E;

--T1: workshop for cutting up and dissolving fuel and clarifying the solutions obtained.  The workshop includes a special line of mechanical equipment designed to handle highly enriched uranium without causing a criticality [NucF 4.vii.05];

--T2: separation of uranium, plutonium, and fission products and concentration of fission products

--T3: purification of uranyl nitrate

--T4: workshop for the purification, conversion into oxide, and packaging of plutonium; includes a dissolving unit that, like URP, can recover plutonium from discards and put it back into the process;

--T5: storage of uranyl nitrate. The installation has a capacity of 2000 m3, equaling 800 tons of uranium, divided among 10 containers [Delange 90];  xx

--T7: vitrification of fission products;

--BSI: storage and dispatch of PuO2 containers. BSI stores PuO2 containing up to 30 tons of plutonium in cages arranged in ventilated trenches.  xx

--ACC:  compaction of hulls and ends [described in a later section]

Storage for the solution of concentrated fission products. The total capacity is 960 m3 [Delange 90].   xx

Around 2001-2002 modification of workshop T3 allowed T3 to replace MAU. Uranyl nitrate from R2 of UP2-800 is sent through piping to T3, where it is purified in a single step in the equipment originally constructed for a third cycle. The third-cycle chain is not now in use, because the uranyl nitrate produced at UP3 is purified to standard in only two cycles [Cogémag xi-xii.96/i.97]. 

As of 1994, fuel awaiting reprocessing was stored in the following pools with a total capacity of 14,390 t of uranium metal contained in fuel elements before irradiation: HAO (400 t); NPH (A + B, 2000 t);  C in UP2 (3590 t); D (3490 t) and E (4910 t) in UP3 [Regnier 94a]. With the intention of reracking the pools at UP2-800 and UP3, Cogéma obtained authorization in 2003 to raise the capacity of C to 4800 t, of D to 4600 t, and of E to 6200 t.  The capacity of NPH, originally in UP2-400 but considered part of UP2-800,  was left at 2000 t [J.O. 11.i.05]. Therefore, Cogéma is authorized to store 17,600 t of uranium and plutonium metal at UP2-800 and UP3 [JO 11.i.05].  As of October 2008, Areva had not installed the compact racks that would allow it to take advantage of the increase in the authorization [NucF 20.x.08]. These pools are under the control of the IAEA and Euratom . 

As of  December 31, 2008, 9179 t of plutonium and uranium metal calculated before irradiation were stored in pools awaiting reprocessing at La Hague. Of the 9179 t, 99.9% was of French origin [Areva TraitLH 08].  

The heat produced by the disintegration of fissile materials in the pools has to be evacuated continuously by a complicated system of cooling circuits and exchangers to avoid boiling and escape of radionuclides [Hirsch 90].