Disappearance of Reprocessing Contracts for Foreign Fuel

            The UP3 reprocessing plant at La Hague was prefinanced with contracts between Cogéma and twenty-seven operators of foreign power plants for the reprocessing of about 7000 tons of irradiated fuel over a ten-year period.  The fuel came from Belgium, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.  Until around 2004 about half of Cogéma’s reprocessing was for foreign clients.  Today Cogéma/Areva’s most significant foreign clients have abandoned reprocessing [Schneider, 08, p. 13].     

As of December 31, 2008, only the following irradiated fuel (in metric tons of heavy metal—thm) from foreign companies was in pools at La Hague, waiting to be reprocessed: 

Australia            0.131 thm  (MTR fuel)            work to be completed in 2010

Belgium             0.367 thm   (MTR fuel)           work to be completed in 2012  [NucF 4.vii.05]

Switzerland       0.148  thm                                 work to be carried out in 2011

Italy                 12.4  thm*                                   to be reprocessed by 2014 [ArevaTraitLH 08, p. 30]

 *Areva has a contract with Italy for the reprocessing of a total of 235 thm of LWR fuel. As of the close of 2008, 94.1 t, including the 12.4 t listed above, had been received.  The waste from reprocessing of the 235 t is to be returned to Italy by the end of 2025, according to an agreement between France and Italy [ArevaTraitLH 08, pp. 34-35].   

Reprocessing of MOX and research and test reactor fuel

Cogéma/Areva seeks reprocessing contracts for irradiated MOX fuel and for irradiated research reactor and materials test reactor (MTR) fuel as well as for standard LWR fuel, but reprocessing of each special fuel poses problems.  

In comparison with U02 fuel, the reprocessing of MOX entails, among other factors, an increase in the risk of a criticality because of the increase in the concentrations of plutonium, the degradation of solvents because of the increase in alpha emissions, difficulty in decontaminating plutonium because of the presence of products from the degradation of tributylphosphate, and difficulty in manipulating plutonium containers because of the heat emitted by the plutonium 238 [Baetslé 94].  Cogéma/Areva dilutes MOX in LWR fuel in order to reprocess it and, as of the end of 1997, La Hague had reprocessed in this way only some 67.5 t of MOX, according to Jean-Guy Devezeaux de Lavergne of Areva [NucF 24.iii.08].   

Devezeaux de Lavergne, at a SFEN conference, noted that reprocessing of MOX even in diluted form multiplies by “fivefold” in comparison with irradiated UO2 fuel, the plutonium content of the pipelines and changes the “nature of the plutonium” being handled.  Therefore, the La Hague plant will have to undergo “significant adaptations” in order to reprocess the amount of MOX that would be required to provide plutonium for fuel for Generation IV reactors  [NucF 24.iii.08]. 

Research reactor and MTR fuel is likewise difficult to handle, in part because it contains highly enriched uranium.   Reprocessing is made possible by dissolving the fuel in standard LWR fuel at a dilution ratio of  “’a few tens of kg in tons of UOx,’” Philippe Knoche, director of Cogema/Areva’s Reprocessing Business Unit, told Nuclear Fuel.   Cogéma/Areva installed in the T1 workshop in UP3 a special line of mechanical equipment designed to handle highly enriched uranium without causing a criticality [NucF 4.vii.05]. However, Jean-Pierre Gros, the head of Areva’s Recycling Business Unit, told Nuclear Fuel in December, 2008, that if Areva can increase its reprocessing contracts for UOX fuel to 1500 thm per year, it will stop seeking customers wanting to reprocess research and MTR fuel, because the reprocessing operation is “complicated” and, for a given mass, absorbs much more of La Hague’s reprocessing capacity than UOX fuel [NucF 29.xii.08].

Dependence on EDF for continuation of reprocessing 

Of the 9179 thm of irradiated fuel awaiting reprocessing at La Hague at the end of 2008, 99.9 percent came from EDF [ArevaTraitLH 08, p. 27], on which Areva depends for the continued operation of the plant. 

EDF unloads fuel containing approximately 1200 metric tons of heavy metal (thm) from its reactors each year [NucF 29.xii.08].  Approximately 100 thm are MOX fuel; 1100 thm are standard UOX fuel.  EDF’s policy since the year 2000 has been to reprocess about 850 thm of UOX fuel each year.  The remaining 250 thm of UOX fuel are stored at reactor sites and at La Hague, as are the 100 thm of MOX fuel. 

In December 2008 EDF signed an agreement with Areva by which EDF will increase from 850 thm to 1050 thm per year the amount of UOX fuel that it will reprocess by 2010.  (It will at the same time increase production of MOX from 100 thm to 120 thm per year by 2010.)  It will not reprocess MOX at this time, but expects to reprocess it at some future date to obtain plutonium for so-called Generation IV nuclear reactors [NucF 29.xii.08].

Areva hopes to increase the reprocessing at La Hague to 1500 thm per year.  In 2008 it reprocessed only 937 thm.  To obtain the increase it will need to find new foreign contracts to carry out alongside its work for EDF.   Where sufficient big contracts will come from is not apparent.

Additional Contracts

The French material that La Hague receives includes various materials from the Melox installation, from the UP-1 reprocessing plant, which is undergoing decommissioning, and from Cadarache where uranium and plutonium have been removed from ATPu and LPC (which produced or helped produce MOX fuel). At Cadarache rejected tablets and other materials were crushed, made into new tablets, and loaded into fuel rods, which were sent to La Hague. Powdered PuO2 is reconditioned for dispatch. In 2004, for example, 8.301 thm of uranium and plutonium (in 12,223 fuel rods) and 82 cans of PuO2 went to La Hague from Cadarache [CogémaCad 04], and the removal operation apparently continued until mid-2008 [ASN 08, p. 435].

The following items point to work for foreign facilities, other than reprocessing irradiated fuel, that is being carried out at La Hague:

----6 May 2008 ASN gave Areva permission to repackage in UP3-A powdered PuO2 from the English installation Sellafield (Controle, xi.08, p. 170

----12 June 2008 ASN stated that it had no objection to Areva receiving and storing unirradiated MOX material from the Dessel plant in Belgium, which is being decommissioned (Controle, xi.08, p. 170),

----26 February 2009, in Decision  2009-DC-0132, ASN authorized Areva to receive, package, store, and treat nuclear materials from the common research center Ispra in Italy [Controle, vii.09, p. 116].  The materials consist of unirradiated powdered plutonium oxide, powdered MOX, and  tablets of MOX .

 ----In 2009 Areva is reprocessing MOX assemblies made from production scrap, i.e. unirradiated material, from the former Siemens MOX fuel plant at Hanau in Germany [NucF, 15.vi.09].

----In 2014-2015, Areva will reprocess 16 unirradiated MOX fuel assemblies made by BNFL and rejected by Kansai Electric.  They are currently in storage at Sellafield  [NucF 15.vi.09].

     --updated 5 October 2009   

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