PROVENCE-ALPES-COTE-D’AZUR

The reactors in by date of criticality:

Below are presented the reactors in service by date of criticality, then two reactors under development, and finally the reactors no longer in service.

Type: pool

Period of operation: at Fontenay, 1959-1976?; moved to Cadarache in 1977

Power: 100 W thermal

Fuel: as of 1995, uranium enriched to between 90 and 93% uranium 235; (minimum critical mass 5 kg)

Minerve, which is in the same hall as Eole, is "devoted to the measurement of effective sections by oscillation of samples" 

[DSIN 98, 00].

Purpose: studies in naval propulsion

Type: critical model of Pat

Period of operation: since 1962

Power: 100 W thermal

Comments: Technicatome restarted Azur for tests of the initial core of the Charles de Gaulle and then for variations of that core [Technicatome brochure, n.d.]  As of 2004, Azur was still in operation, verifying that fuel elements would produce the intended reaction. A fuel core is checked before being loaded into a submarine. The reaction in the core is set off but not allowed to mount in strength. Starting in 2004, Azur will be used in addition for training navy personnel to control a fuel core [défis ii-iii.04].

Purpose: study of the behavior of fuel during accidents

Type: pool

Operator: CEA (IRSN oversees the test program)

Period of operation: since 1963

Power: 25 MW thermal

Fuel: uranium enriched to 6% (minimum critical mass-700 kg)

Moderator and cooling fluid: light water

Cabri, which is in the same hall as Scarabée (see below), is essentially used to study the behavior of fast neutron reactor and PWR fuel during rapid fluctuations of power [DSIN 1997]. From 1993 to 1998, ten reactivity insertion accident tests (RIA), tests of what can occur when fuel rods are suddenly ejected [NucF 29.vi.98], were conducted using PWR fuel and a sodium testing loop. The series, which was co-sponsored by IPSN and EDF and co-financed by them and the USNRC and the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute [NucF 2.vi.97], was called Cabri-REP-Na.  The final test in that program was carried out July 11, 2001.

After the modification of Cabri to improve the ventilation and fire protection, the installation began a new series of tests, Cabri-BEP, to determine the behavior of the UO2 fuel at elevated burn-up levels and of Mox fuel under conditions known as RIA (Reactivity-Insertion-Accident).  The tests are financed by IRSN and EDF and by foreign partners.  

The first two tests of the new series took place with the existing sodium loop.  Ten supplementary tests were to be carried out between 2005 and 2007, after replacement of the sodium loop by a water loop. However, replacement of the sodium loop with the water loop has proved to be unexpectedly difficult and has caused a delay of four years in the Cabri International Program (CIP) [NucF 13.xi.06].

                                                                                                                                                                       --revised June 3, 2007

Purpose: neutronic studies of the cores of pressurized water and boiling water reactors

Type: critical model

Period of operation: since 1965

Power: 100 W thermal

Fuel: diverse, including uranium enriched to 93% U235

Moderator: heavy water

Eole is a well at the bottom of which a small tank supports grills on which various configurations of the core can be placed. The program Mistral, which began in 1996 and is scheduled to last five years, is designed to study cores that are 100% Mox [defi vi.96].

Purpose: experimental neutronic studies on various types of assemblies

In Masurca “tubular fuel elements are created by piling up plates or strips each containing, within a leak proof envelope, uranium and/or plutonium in various forms, according to the situation” [Con vi.98].

The program Muse (Measurements with External Sources; Mesures avec Sources Externes) studies the core of a subcritical reactor that could be associated with an accelerator. In 1999 an external source of neutrons produced by the Genepi (Générateur de Neutrons Pulsés Internes, Generator of Internal Pulsed Neutrons,) was to be integrated into the system. Several experimental programs known by the generic name Cosmo (Configuration pour la Simulation de la Modération) are studying the phenomena of transmutation and incineration in various scenarios [Con iv.99]. In 1997, in the framework of the Capra study of the incineration of plutonium, DSIN authorized the use of fuel plates containing plutonium metal [DSIN 97].

Because of the importance of Masurca for development of reactors belonging to what is called Generation IV, the CEA decided to renovate Masurca in order to keep it in operation.  The renovation includes reinforcing the protection against earthquakes for the Storage and Handling Building (BSM); the reactor building does not need such reinforcement.  Renovation was to begin in the autumn of 2007 and to last eighteen months.  The Permanent Group on Reactors is scheduled to meet at the end of 2009 to determine if Masurca, with the changes, can be safely operated.  It is expected to begin operating again in 2010 [RGN iii-iv.07].

                                                                              --Masurca revised 25 September 2008

II.F Phébus

Purpose: studies of hypothetical accidents in pressurized water reactors

Type: pool with an open core

Operator: IPSN

Period of operation: since 1978

Power: capable of operating at between 20 and 40 MW thermal

Fuel: uranium enriched to 2.78%

Moderator: light water

The reactor was transformed into a miniature PWR (scale 1/5000) for the program Phébus PFF, a study of the fission products released by a melting core. In ten years, six core fusion experiments will be conducted in this reactor. After each experiment, the installation, except for the reactor, is dismantled, a new mini-PWR constructed, and the wastes from dismantling, packaged and stored. The first test, using 10 kg of uranium (FPT0), took place in 1993; the second (FPT1) in 1996. FPT4, which employed 5.5 kg of UO2 in fragmented form, was held in July 1999 [Con x.99]. FPT2 took place in October 2002 [DSIN 99].

Purpose: development of military naval propulsion

Type: pressurized water reactor

Period of operation: since 1989

Perfects and qualifies technologies for nuclear missile-launching submarines of the new generation, Triomphant type, and for aircraft carriers of the Charles-de-Gaulle type; trains sailors and develops cores for the reactors of future submarines. A part of the prototype reactor Cap has been incorporated into the RNG, but the RNG was given a new fuel core [Barrillot 99].  The CEA plans to retire the RNG in 2005 [défis ii-iii.04]. 

Purpose: furtherance of naval military propulsion

Type: testing reactor, pressurized water

Period of operation: first criticality planned for 2010

The RES will have the form of a compact pressurized water reactor derived from that of the Charles de Gaulle and of the new generation of SNLE but with numerous adaptations. The mission of RES will include irradiation and qualification of fuel to the extent possible on land; experimentation with innovative concepts; and maintenance of the capacity to develop and to adapt with a view to other possible prototypes and applications. Initially the reactor will serve to qualify innovative concepts for the reactors in the future Barracuda class of nuclear attack submarines [Fribourg 99].  An  innovation with RES will be its ability to analyze in real time what happens in a fuel core, thanks to the presence of probes inside the vessel.  This will enable the CEA to improve the mathematical tables that describe fission reactions in a nuclear core and the manner in which the fuel wears out [défis ii-iii.04].

 The installation is to include a storage pool for irradiated fuel from naval propulsion reactors and also from the CEA's experimental reactors. (The CEA has three other pools for naval fuel:  at Toulon, at Ile-Longue, and at Cherbourg.)  The pool, which will be able to hold more than twenty cores, went into service in 2005 [CEA Ra 06].   

Beginning in 2012, RES will take over from the Célestin at Marcoule the production of tritium to meet military needs [Boucheron 01].

                                                                          --updated September 8, 2007

Purpose: primarily irradiation of materials and fuel

Type: pool

Operator: CEA

Period of operation: entry into service planned for 2014

Power: at least 100 MW thermal

A Materials Testing Reactor (MTR), Jules Horowitz will replace Osiris and Siloé. It is intended to meet the short and medium-term needs of the nuclear industry by supporting current reactors and their replacements and to meet long term needs by assisting in the development of other reactor types.  The CEA intends to operate the reactor with low-enriched uranium-molybdenum fuel, but, in case this fuel is not available when the reactor is ready to go critical, the CEA plans to substitute a silicide fuel with uranium enriched to 27%. Technicatome, Framatome-ANF, and EDF make up the engineering team [Dupuy et al. 2006].  According to the CNE, the reactor will include a fast neutron component, but this component will be capable of irradiating only a few test needles [CNE2 08].  

                                    --revised September 23, 2008

The reactors and critical assemblies that are no longer in service include:

--Marius, critical assembly put into operation at Marcoule and later moved to Cadarache (1960-83);

--Peggy, critical model of Pégase (1961-1975);

--Pégase, 35 Mw thermal reactor for the study of fuel (1963-1975);

--César, critical model (1964-74);

--Prototype on land (Prototype à terre, PAT), prototype of the reactors with loops installed in missile-launching submarines of the Redoutable type (1964-1992);

--Advanced prototype reactor (Chaufferie avancée prototype, Cap), prototype of the compact reactors of the nuclear attack submarines of the Rubis type (1975-1987);

--Harmonie, tank, neutron source, 1 or 2 kW thermal (1965-1996) (Harmonie has been dismantled and the slab cleansed; administrative delicensing is expected to take place in 2008 [ASN 07]);

--Rapsodie (see below).

--Scarabée, a 100 Mw thermal, pool type reactor for the study of fast neutron fuel in accidents.  It was located in the same hall as Cabri (both in building INB 24), with which it shared some auxiliary facilities.  The core was unloaded in 1996, and has since been reprocessed at La Hague (1982-1996).  

Marius, Peggy, and César have been dismantled. Pégase has been partially dismantled.

Purpose: pilot fast neutron reactor

Period of operation: 1967-1983

Power: 20 MW thermal initially; 40 MW thermal beginning in 1970

Fuel: at first Mox, PUO2 25% and UO2 75% enriched to 60% U235; for Fortissimo, PuO2 30% and UO2 70% enriched to 85% U235

Coolant: liquid sodium

The reactor was adapted for a new mode of operation, Fortissimo, in 1970.

Rapsodie did not produce electricity. The heat was released into the atmosphere [CEANo v.70]. The reactor irradiated more than 30,000 fuel rods, at levels of up to 210,000 MWd/t. Most of the fuel was reprocessed at Fontenay and at La Hague [Sauteron 69].  The fertile covers (5.6 t) and 600 kg of fuel were reprocessed at Marcoule via Tor-UP1.  As of the end of 1999, 0.4 t of fuel from Fortissimo were awaiting reprocessing [CEAD 99].

The fuel and the sodium were removed between 1983 and 1986. Dismantling to level 2 began in 1987 and was almost complete when an accident occurred 31 March 1994. A temporary storage tank, R302, located next to Rapsodie and containing some 100 kg of sodium residues from the primary circuit of the reactor exploded. The tank was being cleaned and the sodium, treated with ethyl-carbitol. The explosion tore the tank, damaged the circular gallery around the reactor and made a part of the room’s roof, a thick slab of concrete, collapse. The accident killed one person and injured four.

As of 1997, the reactor vessel was emptied of its fuel and confined, and the steam generators and primary circuits had been dismantled. ASN approved a revision of the installation's safety reference system in 2007, which allows the CEA to carry out a certain number of cleaning operations and to dismantle equipment annexed to the reactor.  At the end of 2007 the CEA submitted a file requesting an authorization to carry out final shutdown and complete decommissioning operations.  The authorization is expected to be received by 2010.  The subsequent dismantling will require about seven years of work [ASN 07].

Wastes from the dismantling of Rapsodie that are stored at Rapsodie include sodium (800 kg) from Desora, a workshop designed for the destruction of sodium; two primary cold traps (800 kg sodium); and two secondary sodium reservoirs (22 t sodium) contaminated with tritium.  The site also stores small amounts of sodium waste from the loops Elcesna and Celia [Andra 06].   

DESORA (DESTRUCTION DE SODIUM PROVENANT DE RAPSODIE)-SHUT DOWN

The workshop, designed for the destruction of sodium from Rapsodie, operated in 1992/93. It destroyed 33 l/h of sodium, 37 t in two months.

                                                                                                            --Rapsodie revised September 19, 2008

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