La France nucleaire - Nuclear France

February 15, J.-L. Lachaume of the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) wrote to the director of Andra, the nuclear waste authority, in regard the maintenance of La Manche Storage Center (CSM) for essentially short-lived waste of “low”- . . .For more, click here.

The association Moruroa e Tatou in French Polynesia published in December the report: Moruroa: Risques environnementaux et changements climatiques. The report summarizes the environmental risks at Mururoa—and at Fangataufa—as a result of nuclear testing. Climate change is exacerbating these risks, the report makes clear.

After 138 underground tests at Muroroa and 11 underground tests at Fangataufa, the two atolls are virtual storage centers of radioactive wastes, which threaten to contaminate the Pacific Ocean. Neither atoll is more than three meters above the ocean. Thus, if climate change causes the oceans to rise significantly, the atolls will eventually be completely submerged. Even today, ocean swells regularly roll over the northeast zone of Fangataufa and the southeast zone of Mururoa.

Contamination of the ocean can come from the breaking up of portions of the atolls and the resulting exposure of fission products deep in the test shafts to the ocean. It can also come from water in contact with thousands of casks of radioactive waste that the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), in dismantling Mururoa, crammed into the tops of the shafts.

Particularly dangerous at present is the southwest zone of Mururoa. Here in 1978 and 1979 underwater cliffs crumbled as the result of testing; the ground has sunk, causing the tops of shafts to be immersed; and further crumbling of the sides of the atoll is likely to occur. The most recent report on Moruroa by CEA geologists (2007) states that three zones in the southwest sector continue to move though at different rates and that in one of them, Camelia, fractures are visible on the surface and are likely to lead to rock falls.

In December the French parliament is expected to pass the Morin law dealing with compensation to nuclear test victims. The law does not contain any measures aimed at studying the condition of the atolls and attempting to prevent environmental contamination, although amendments for this purpose were offered.

November 2, 2009 the safety authorities of France (ASN), Finland (STUK), and the United Kingdom (HSE's ND) published a joint announcement stating that each has found problems with the control and information systems in the EPR. The basic issue is that the safety systems "used to maintain control of the plant if it goes outside of normal operating conditions" are not independent of the control systems "used to operate the plant under normal conditions." Independence is important because the safety systems must not fail when the control systems fail. Areva and the licensees in the three countries must correct this problem, the announcement states.

ASN concurrently sent a letter to EDF in which it asked EDF to demonstrate the safety of the control-command system in the EPR under construction at Flamanville and, if this proves impossible as may well be the case, to utilize and justify an alternative system. .

The safety problem was discovered in June 2009 by HSE and described in an article in The Times July 1, 2009. Sortir du Nucléaire, in a press announcement of November 3, asked why ASN is only now publicly addressing the problem.

October 6, 2009, the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) declared in writing to the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) that it had discovered a discrepancy in the evaluation of nuclear materials at the Workshop for Plutonium Technology (ATPu) at Cadarache, where MOX fuel was formerly manufactured. The workshop is now undergoing decontamination and dismantling. The plutonium was in apparently in glove boxes and was not accessible to cleaners or visible until the glove boxes were taken apart, the CEA stated in a press release October 7. ASN has decided to rank the discrepancy as a level 2 occurrence on the international scale of incidents and has ordered that work at ATPu be suspended. In a communiqué ASN states that during the operation of ATPU the CEA had estimated the amount of plutonium as 8 kg. However, it is in fact "on the order of 22 kg and the CEA estimates that the quantity could amount to almost 39 kg." The Socialist Party and the Greens have asked for the creation of a parliamentary inquiry commission on the error.

Sources: AFP, dispatches of 14 October 2009 from Marseilles and 15 October 2009 from Paris; ASN, Décision 2009-DC-160, 14 October 2009; CEA, press release, 7 October 2009, "Anomalie dans l'Atelier de Technology de Plutonium de Cadararche"

The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2009 by independent energy experts headed by Mycle Schneider, Paris, has been released by the German Federal Environment Ministry which commissioned it. The report makes clear that nuclear energy makes only a marginal and decreasing contribution to worldwide energy consumption. As of 1 August 2009, only 435 reactors were operating across the world, nine fewer than in 2002. Nuclear energy accounts for only about 5.5 % of worldwide commercial primary energy consumption and only around 2 % of worldwide final energy consumption - and consumption has been steadily declining. France, which in 2008 obtained 76.2% of its energy from nuclear reactors, is in some senses an exception to the general pattern. However, the report shows, its energy policy does not benefit French consumers. France has excess electricity generating capacity and will not need to bring new plants online to increase capacity for many years, if not decades. The real reason that France and EDF decided to construct the Flamanville EPR is that they are trying to overcome the same problem of maintaining competence in the nuclear field that is being experienced by other nations with nuclear power programs.

June 25, the National Assembly debated the Morin bill to compensate victims of French nuclear testing. The defense commission had transmitted the bill to the deputies, modified by a few amendments. With the exception of a few deputies from the opposition who abstained, the commission expressed strong support for the bill. Not so, the Polynesian association Moruroa et tatou, which supports the victims. Robin Oldham in a June 21 press release from the organization stated, "The essential claims of our association--the adoption in principle of the presumption of a connection between illnesses and nuclear testing, and the independence from the defense minister of the method for compensating victims have been rejected by the defense commission. And height of hypocrisy, members of parliament belonging to that commission claim that they have defended the test victims well." The National Assembly will vote on the bill June 30.

Valérie Pécresse, minister for higher education and research, inauguarated the Insitute for Chemical Separation (ICSM) at Marcoule June 11. The institute is a joint project of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), University of Montpellier 2 (UM2) and the National Engineering College for Chemistry of Montpellier (ENCSM). It will conduct basic research on complex fluids and heterogeneous solids and is currently assisting in the development of the "fourth generation" of nuclear reactors. ICSM was created in January 2007, but its laboratories were first put into operation in January 2009. Additional information on ICSM can be found at http://icsm.fr .

Jean-Louis Borloo, minister of ecology and energy, has stated in a press announcement that France will not need to begin constructing a third EPR to secure its energy supply before 2020, Agence France Presse reported June 3. The government may eventually need to consider a third reactor if the French nuclear safety authority does not extend the lives of currently operating reactors beyond thirty or forty years, Borloo said.

According to an article in Le Dauphiné Libéré May 28, 2009, GDF-Suez is studying the Tricastin area with an eye to seeking authorization to build a third French European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) there. In May 2008, before the fusion of Suez and GDF, Suez conducted geophysical and geotechnical tests around Tricastin. Nothing was found that would prohibit construction of an EPR. The studies from February to November of this year are to monitor the status of the site's water, soils, flora and fauna.

February 11 of this year the municipal council of Pierrelatte, authorized Areva to purchase a three-hectare triangle of land to the northwest of the site, near the former installations of the CEA, the newspaper reports. Also the council has manifested its intention of constructing a third water reservoir--to furnish water for the town and for Areva.

On April 27, eight Polynesian victims of French nuclear testing, seeking compensation from the French government, will present their case before the Tribunal de Travail (industrial relations court) in Papeete , Tahiti . Three of the victims worked at the Moruroa test site; five are widows of deceased workers. For the first time in French Polynesia , France will be asked in a court to accept responsibility for the consequences of nuclear testing on the health of the Polynesian people. For a press advisory from the Polynesian association Moruroa e tatou, which supports the test victims, click here.

Thursday evening President Sarkozy confirmed a report posted on the Internet site of Figaro shortly before, to the effect that the French government has decided to confide to EDF the construction of a second French European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) and that it will be built at Penly (Seine-Maritime), already the location of two 1300 MW pressurized water reactors. GDF-Suez, a rival of EDF, will play the role of a minority partner; and, Sarkozy implied, GDF-Suez is likely to be put in charge of construction of a third, yet to be announced, EPR. EDF will present a dossier on the project to the National Commission on Public Debates shortly, with an eye to beginning construction in 2012 and putting the new reactor into operation in 2017 (AFP online, January 29, 2009).

The Finnish utility TVO is asking for 2.4 billion euros from the Areva-Siemens consortium for what it charges is a delay of thirty-eight months in the construction of the Olkiluoto European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR), according to a document published on the Siemens Web site. The reactor was originally to go into operation in mid-2009. A thirty-eight month delay mans that startup can not now take place until the second half of 2012. Areva-Siemens and TVO are blaming each other for the delay (AFP, January 28, 2009).

Siemens is preparing to formalize at its General Assembly February 3 a decision to sell its 34% share in Areva NP (the branch of Areva that constructs nuclear power plants) at the latest by 2012. The share will be bought by Areva, but Siemens' decision raises the question of another partner for Areva (Les Echos, January 23, 2009).

The Supreme Court of the United States has overruled a decision of an appeals court that enrichment is a service rather than a production of goods. This means that uranium enriched by Areva subsidiary Eurodif and eventually by Eurodif's successor SET (Société d'Enrichissement de Tricastin) and imported into the United States will be subject to anti-dumping measures. In part to counter this eventuality Areva earlier in the month filed a request for a license to construct a centrifuge enrichment facility, the Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility, in Idaho (AFP, January 26, 2009).

Following Sortir du Nucléaire's announcement that the French nuclear safety authority (ASN) had suspended or withdrawn its approval of laboratories monitoring radiation around EDF's plants (see below), the office of Jean-Louis Borloo announced that there is no interruption in monitoring around the plants. ASN and the Institute for Radioprotection and Safety (IRSN) carry out monitoring independently of EDF, though not with the frequency of EDF. EDF plans to file a request for approval of its laboratories by February 1, and, in the meantime, will sub-contract monitoring to other laboratories that are approved. The ministry further explained that the necessity of laboratories' being approved went into effect January 1, 2009. In preparing to put this requirement into effect, ASN learned, through comparing the work of EDF and other entities, that EDF's measurements of beta activity and tritium were inaccurate. The revelations about the suspension or withdrawal of approval for EDF's laboratories have called attention to the fact that EDF bears the primary responsibility for monitoring levels of radioactivity around its own plants, to EDF's critics a classic case of the fox guarding the chicken coop.

Sources: Ministère de l'Ecologie. Décision de l'ASN sur le suivi de l'environnement, 1/12/09; ASN, Note de l'Information, 1/13/09; l'express.fr, 1/13/09; Nouvelobs.com, 1/13/09; Le Point.fr, l/13/09. . . .

In a series of decisions December 16, 2008, ASN suspended, or in some cases withdrew, its approval of laboratories monitoring releases of beta radiation and tritium from EDF's nuclear power plants, including the remains of the Superphénix.at Creys-Malville. It posted the decisions on its Web site but did not publicize them. The safe-energy coalition Sortir du Nucléaire came across them by accident when studying the site, and called attention to them in a press release of January 12, 2008. The releases in question are tritium in the air and water and the beta activity of aerosols trapped in filters, within one to five kilometers around the sites. ASN found that the laboratories, which are employed by EDF, use measurement methods that are not sufficiently rigorous for surveying around nuclear plants. Sortir du Nucleaire has sent a public letter to the ecology minister, Jean-Louis Borloo, asking whether EDF's releases are currently being monitored and, if so, by what laboratories and what exactly was wrong with the measurements in the past and for how long they have been inaccurate. If it is not possible to know how much radioactivity EDF's plants are now releasing, the plants should be shut down, Sortir du Nucléaire states.

Sources: Sortir du Nucleaire, Press Release, January 12, 2009; French Safety Authority (ASN). Decisions 2008-DC-0121; 2008-DC-0122, 2008-DC-0123, 2008-DC-1024. December 16, 2008.

Areva announced December 12, that it has created the subsidiary Areva Enrichment Services, LLC to conduct its US enrichment initiative and to own and manage the future Eagle Rock Enrichment facility near Idaho Falls, Idaho. It expects to file an application for a license for Eagle Rock with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later this month and to break ground for the facility in 2011.

Les Echos reported December 11 that Areva has decided to begin construction of unit 2 of its new enrichment plant Georges Besse II at Tricastin in a few weeks. The beginning of construction of this unit had been planned for 2012. With the new schedule, the unit will be completed in 2016 rather than in 2018 as originally planned. Unlike the first unit, the second unit will be authorized to reprocess recycled uranium. For basic information on Georges Besse II, click here .

12/04/08 Legislation to Indemnify Victims of French Nuclear Testing Proposed

November 26 the French National Assembly debated proposed legislation on indemnification of the victims of nuclear testing. The deputies from all parliamentary groups, including those supporting the government, had been in favor of a proposed text. Nevertheless, Mme Taubira, a deputy in the Socialist group, in order to speed up the legislative process had filed her own text reflecting the view of the Socialist party in particular. When the debate began, she withdrew her bill and asked that the deputies take a position on the text common to all parties. However, the Minister of Defense, Hervé Morin, destroyed the unified support for this text by announcing that he would file a bill on the same subject. The deputies belonging to the majority voted against the legislation before them and now await the government’s bill.

Morin has announced that the government’s bill fixes the threshold for indemnification at 50 mSv. Based on figures on the Polynesian tests already given by the defense ministry, the 50 mSv cut-off would mean that the government would only indemnify three people out of the 100,000 who participated in the Polynesian tests, advocates of indemnification charge. The bill has not yet been filed, but a preliminary version without dosage figures, dated November 6, was printed in the Tahitian press November 26. The Assembly and Senate are expected to vote on the government’s bill in the first half of 2009.

12/1/09 Update: Late in December Bruno Barrillot, John Doom, and two Polynesians met with representatives of the French Ministry of Defense in Paris. Their views on the pending legislation were listened to, but they do not know whether these views will be reflected in the bill that the government submits to parliament.

The Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament has released a report that it commissioned from Mycle Schneider Consulting: Nuclear Power in France; Beyond the Myth. Schneider examines the downside of nuclear power in France, including the facts that the civilian program has benefited greatly from military developments and programs, many French households cannot pay their electricity bills, because, at the urging of the electric utility, they rely on electricity for heating, the maintenance of a high level of competence in the nuclear workforce is difficult as many workers become eligible for retirement, and French nuclear safety officials are raising quality control issues in regard to the construction of a European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) at Flamanville.

Also helpful on the same subject is Nuclear Power, The Great Illusion: Promises, Setbacks and Threats from Global Chance. The lead author of this report on the French industry is Yves Marignac of Wise-Paris. The report was released in France in October but was only just now posted in English on the Web.

The French nuclear industry has met its match, the French wine industry. Wine producers in a corner of the Rhone Valley no longer want their wine to carry the name . . .

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced July 3 that he has decided to construct another European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) in France. He did not state where or when it will go into operation, but he did say that construction must begin in 2011.

Source: Portail du Gouvernement. Premier Ministre. Press announcement. July 3, 2008.

Cameco has announced that it plans to begin pumping the water from the Cigar Lake Mine in Saskatchewan, Canada, flooded in 2006 as the result of a rock fall. Cameco has already plugged the opening in the rocks through which water entered the mine. Cameco owns 50% of the yet-to-be opened mine; Areva Resources Canada owns a 37% interest. See below "A Setback for Areva's Mining Program," posted November 1, 2006.

At the request of the minister of ecology, Jean-Louis Borloo, Andra in June sent more than three thousand mayors in twenty departments in France invitations to present their municipalities as candidates for an installation to store radioactive waste that is long lived but "weakly" radioactive (FAVL). The installation will be constructed at a depth of between 15 and 200 meters underground. Andra selected the twenty departments because they have clay that Andra believes will be a suitable burial medium. The wastes will be of two main types: graphite from natural uranium-graphite gas reactors, contaminated with, among other things, very long lived carbon 14 (half life 5730 years) and chlorine 26 (half life 302,000 years), and wastes contaminated with radium, in particular from uranium mines and from the processing of rare earths. The French nuclear waste law passed in June 2006 requires that an installation to store these wastes enter into service in 2019.

Source: "La France recherche un site pour ses déchets faiblement radioactifs," Le Monde, June 24, 2008.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced February 26 that it has accepted for review the design of the Evolutionary Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR). Areva filed the application for the review December 11, 2007. The NRC expects its study of the application to continue "at least into 2011." The EPR, which is already under construction at Olkiluoto in Finland and Flamanville in France, was originally called the European Pressurized Water Reactor and still carries that name in Europe.

Among other designs before the NRC are General Electric's Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor, which the NRC is reviewing, and Mitsubishi's US-Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor, which the NRC is considering whether to review. It has already certified four standard reactor designs, including Westinghouse's AP 1000 Advanced Reactor Design.

Agence France Presse reported January 15 that China will not execute its contract with Areva for two EPRs, if Areva will not make an irrevocable promise to turn over technology for reprocessing irradiated fuel to China. The contract was concluded, with fanfare, November 26, 2007 (see below, "Areva Finally Obtains . . .").

January 13 Anne Lauvergeon CEO of Areva and Mamadou Tandja, president of Niger, signed agreements renewing Areva's right to operate the Cominak and Somair mines in northwestern Niger in 2008 and 2009 and allowing Areva to open an additional mine at Imouraren in northern Niger. The price that Areva pays Niger for a pound of uranium oxide will rise from $32 to more than $40 in 2008 with a further increase in 2009 for a total increase of about 50%. Areva anticipates that it will obtain 5000 tons of uranium per year from the Imouraren mine when it goes into operation in 2010. According to the Figaro, Areva mined approximately 3500 tons of uranium in Niger, more than 40% of its production, in 2007 .

Sources: Areva, Press Release, January 13, 2008, posted on www.areva.com; "Mine d'uraniuim," AFP, January 13, 2008; "Uranium--Areva renouvelle ses contrats au Niger," Le Figaro, January 14, 2008.

The U.S. administration proposed spending $160 million in fiscal year 2008 for components for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) to be built at Cadarache. Nevertheless, in the 2008 budget bill, the U.S. Congress approved $10.7 million for Iter-related research and nothing for construction. The director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is heading up the U.S. role in the international project, told journalist Frank Munger that the U.S. team had wanted to start component acquisition because it is afraid that prices for materials will rise. The future of the U.S. role is unclear.

Source: Frank Munger, "Iter Needs Some SNS 'Luck,'' Knoxnews.com blogs, posted December 30, 2007.

Areva has completed the design certification application for what is now called the U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor (U.S. EPR) and submitted it to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission December 11. Unistar, a joint venture between Constellation Energy and EDF, has proposed building at least four EPRs in the United States. See Yahoo Finance, http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071211/netu030.html?.v=36 .

December 3 when Nicolas Sarkozy was visiting Algeria, the Observatoire des Armements/CDRPC in Lyon issued a press release and a report asking if it is not time for France to assume its responsibilities in the aftermath of nuclear testing in Algeria. According to Bruno Barrillot, who visited the site with a team from French television in November, France abandoned the site without removing radioactive waste or fencing it off. The press release and the recommendations from the report, translated into English, are at http://www.earthisland.org/yggdrasil/algeria%20031207.htm .

In a dispatch dated December 4, Reuters reported that a source close to President Sarkozy says that France will send experts to Algeria to study the consequences of the nuclear tests and will "assume its responsibilities" there.

Agence France Presse reported, also December 4, that during Sarkozy's visit to Algeria, Algeria and France agreed to cooperate on the "development of nuclear energy for peaceful ends. Platts (December 5) listed the areas of cooperation as "basic research, technology transfer, training, electricity production and uranium exploration and production." Algeria has two small research reactors but no nuclear power plants. It had previously signed an agreement for nuclear cooperation with the United States.

Cages containing the mummified bodies of goats exposed to an atmospheric nuclear test in Algeria, 1 April 1960

After four years of negotiations, Areva and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp. (CGNPC) concluded a contract November 26 worth 8 billion euros (some 12 billion dollars). Two European pressurized water reactors (EPRs) will be constructed at Taishan in Guangdong province. Work is to begin in 2009; and the reactors are scheduled to go into operation around 2014. According to Les Echos, the reactors are apparently priced in the contract at 3.6 billion euros for the two. (This is the price of the single EPR being constructed at Flamanville in France.) In addition to the reactors themselves, Areva will provide 600 tons of fuel for them annually through 2026. It will also provide China with 35% of the uranium produced by the Canadian mining company UraMin which Areva bought earlier this year and which has uranium rights in Namibia, South Africa, and the Central African Republic. Areva and CGNPC plan to create an engineering company, in which each will have a 50% share. Areva will transfer the EPR technology to this company, an arrangement, which Areva claims, will give it partial control of the process. Westinghouse when it sold four AP1000 reactors to China in 2006 agreed to transfer the entire technology directly to China.

Areva has entered into an agreement with the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to create a company in common to produce zirconium for fuel cladding. In addition, Areva and CNNC plan to study the feasibility of eventually constructing a reprocessing facility in China.

Source: "Nucléaire: Areva décroche enfin son grand contrat chinois," Les Echos, November 27, 2007.

The nuclear industry is on its way out rather than experiencing a renaissance, the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2007 demonstrates. The report, released November 21, was commissioned by the Greens-European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament and written by Mycle Schneider with the assistance of Antony Froggatt. Currently 339 reactors are in operation worldwide, five fewer than five years ago. The total capacity of the 339 is 371,000 MW. They thus furnish 16% of the electricity, 6% of the commercial primary energy, and 2-3% of the final energy in the world, less than hydropower. If a lifetime of 40 years per reactor is assumed (a generous assumption given that the 117 reactors that have been shut down operated for an average of only about 22 years each), 261 new reactors would have to go into operation between now and 2025, in addition to the 32 reactors already under construction, just to replace the units that would be shut down in that period. This would mean one new reactor going online every month and a half to 2015 and one every 18 days for the following ten years. Given the length of time necessary to license and construct a reactor, such a schedule would be virtually impossible to implement. The situation is exacerbated by "lack of a trained workforce, massive loss of competence, severe manufacturing bottlenecks (a single facility in the world, Japan Steel Works, can cast large forgings for reactor pressure vessels), lack of confidence of international finance institutions," and strong competition from natural gas and renewable energy systems. Schneider also wrote Industry Status Reports in 1992 and 2004 and cites figures from them to show trends. The complete report is available online at http://www.greens-efa.org . (Click on English at the bottom of the first page to enter the site.)

At the World Energy Congress, meeting in Rome, Ann Lauvergeon, CEO of Areva, called November 12 for an international licensing system for nuclear plants in order to streamline the licensing process. DowJones Business News quotes her as stating that "If we are to restart (the process of authorization for nuclear development) every time, it's a very costly issue for us." A fast-track process "would make sense." UniStar, a joint venture of the US company Constellation Energy and EDF, has already submitted to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the first part of a two-part application, for a license to construct an Evolutionary Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR), designed by Areva, at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. At the World Energy Conference, Lauvergeon also announced that Areva is considering acquiring uranium mining operations in the United States.

Sources: Bobette Riner, "French Nuke Know-How Crossing the Atlantic," Natural Gas Week, August 13, 2007; David Roman, DowJones Business News, November 12, 2007

Areva has announced that it plans to build an enrichment plant at an as-yet-to-be-selected location within the United States. Plans call for the plant to go into operation in 2013 and reach initial capacity of 3 million SWU/yr by 2017. It will be the third new plant in the United States. The other two will be LES's National Enrichment Facility in New Mexico and USEC's American Centrifuge Plant in Ohio. Nevertheless, Areva's Michael McMurphy told Nuclear Fuel that the Areva plant is intended to help provide enriched uranium to existing US reactors. All three new plants will employ centrifuge technology. In the case of Areva, the centrifuges will be supplied by the Enrichment Technology Corp., owned by Areva and Urenco. Areva has already begun construction of a centrifuge plant, George Besse II, at Tricastin in France. This plant is scheduled to begin operation in 2009 and produce 7.5 million SWU in 2018.

Source: Ann MacLachlan and Daniel Horner, "Areva Plans to Build US Enrichment Plant," Nuclear Fuel 32, no. 14 (July 2, 2007), p. 1ff.

A list of the 500 fastest supercomputers in the world, released at the 2007 International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany in June, ranks the CEA's computer at Bruyères-le-Châtel as twelfth fastest. The computer from Bull, which plays a key role in the CEA's program to simulate nuclear tests, has a top speed of 52.8 teraflops per second. (A teraflop is a trillion calculations.) The fastest computer is at Livermore National Laboratory in the United States and has a top speed of 280.6 teraflops per second. Computers in Spain and in Germany are in the ninth and tenth positions respectively. The entire list can be seen at www.top500.org .

France conducted its second test of the M51 missile June 21, 2007, at the Centre d'Essais et de Lancement de Missile des Landes at Biscarosse. The first test was carried out November 9, 2006. The missile is intended to replace the M45 missile on submarines beginning in 2010.

The coalition "Non au Missile M51" had announced the morning of June 19 that citizen inspectors had just prevented a test launch of the M51 by entering the missile-launching site. According to the coalition, the test was originally to have been conducted that morning in secrecy. It maintains that two members were on the site when the test finally occurred. It regards the test as a violation of Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Sources: "Deuxième tir d'essai du missile M51 en dépit des anti-nucléaires," Reuteurs, June 21, 2007

In the French presidential debate May 2, Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkovy exchanged statistics in regard to nuclear energy. Royal said that nuclear energy accounts for 17% of the electricity generated in France; Sarkozy set the figure at 50%. In 2005, nuclear energy was the source of 78.5% of the electricity generated in France. Royal's 17% referred to the contribution of nuclear to the end consumption of energy in general in France, including petroleum. Sarkozy's 50% did not refer to anything.

In regard to types of reactors Royal was correct. The European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) is a Generation III reactor, not a Generation IV reactor as Sarkozy indicated. This mistake on Sarkozy's part is surprising, since as minister of the economy in 2005, he launched the EPR project, which he still favors.

Royal would suspend the recent authorization to construct an EPR in Flamanville and organize a new national energy debate. She raises the question of whether it would be advantageous to go from current reactors to Generation IV reactors. Generation IV reactors, which will be designed to economize uranium and to "burn" components of radioactive waste, are not expected to be ready to enter into service until around 2040.

Sortir du Nucleaire, "Suites du débat N. Sarkozy--S. Royal" [Press release], 3 May, 2007.

April 26, 2007 the Journal officiel published decree 2007-607 stating that "The annual production capacity of [Melox] is limited to 195 tons of uranium and plutonium contained in products leaving the plant and destined for light water reactors," i.e. 195 tons per year of heavy metal. When the plant began operation in 1995, it was authorized to produce only 115 tons per year of mixed oxide. In 2003 the authorization was raised to 145 tons per year of heavy metal.

At a symposium in April on mining in Nunavut, Charlie Jefferson of the Canadian Geological Survey presented evidence that the Thelon Basin area may be as rich in uranium as the Athabasca Basin area, now being mined in Saskatchawan. Areva Resources Canada has three uranium exploration properties in Nunavut: Sissons ( Areva 50%, JCU Exploration [Canada] 48%, and Daewoo 2%), St. Tropez, and Kiggavik (99% Areva, 1% Daewoo). Areva plans to complete exploratory drilling on the Kiggavik project this year and to make a decision in the fall as to whether mining there would be economically feasible. The property is comprised of seventeen mineral leases on a total of 3972 ha, eighty kilometers west of Baker Lake. Production at Kiggavik cannot be expected to begin until at least 2015, but, if it does, Areva will presumably be the first company to obtain uranium from Nunavut. Nunavut is in north-central Canada, above Manitoba. The land is controlled by the Inuit rather than by the federal government.

Sources: Weber, Bob. "Uranium Miners, Explorers Radiate Optimism over Northern Deposit Potential, Canadian Press, April 18, 2007. Available online

A decree authorizing construction of a European Pressurized Water Reactor ( EPR) at Flamanville (Manche) was published in the Journal officiel April 11, 2007. Two reactors already operate at the site.

March 21, 2007, the French Nuclear Safety Authority gave its consent to use of MOX fuel in reactors C5 and C6 of Electricité de France's (EDF's) Gravelines plant (Nord-Pas-de-Calais) (Avis no. 2007-AV-0020). A decree authorizing use is expected to follow. The other four reactors at the site, B1, B2, B3, and B4, are already authorized to use MOX.

EDF is also in the process of obtaining authorization to use MOX in reactors 3 and 4 of the Le Blayais plant (Aquitaine). Reactors 1 and 2 at Le Blayais are already authorized to use MOX.

In a press release of March 22, 2007, Areva announced that its consolidated net income in 2006 was 649 million euros, down 38.1% percent from its consolidated net income in 2005. The company attributes the decline to delays in the construction of a new European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) in Finland and a consequent decrease in its earnings from its reactors and services division. On the other hand, its backlog of orders increased in 2006 by 24.6% and sales revenue was up 7.3%. Areva is still attempting to obtain control of the German group RePower Systems AG, which manufactures wind turbines.

Sixty thousand people marched in a total of five French cities March 17 for an end to EDF's plan to construct an EPR in Flammanville. The demonstration was sponsored by Stop EPR and the Sortir du Nucléaire network and was aimed, in particular, at influencing the positions of candidates running for election..

Large Associates has released a report that calculates that operating a 1600 MWe European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) at Flamanville as planned would place the public at tremendous risk. The EPR can be fueled entirely with mixed oxide fuel containing plutonium (MOX). Risks and Hazards of the Proposed and Existing EPR/PWR Nuclear Power Plants in France compares the results in terms of human health of an accident or terrorist attack resulting in a containment bypass or failure at the EPR when it is loaded with one or three types of fuel: entirely MOX fuel, entirely low-enriched uranium fuel (LEU), or a mixture of 30% MOX and 70% LEU. The report also calculates the results of such a severe accident for certain smaller, currently operating plants, including a 1330 MWe reactor with an LEU core at Flamanville.

John H. Large states that a loss of containment at the EPR with a 100% MOX core could result in a maximum 650 early deaths, 60,760 late fatal cancers, and 1,307 thyroid cancer deaths. The maximum land area that should be evacuated would total 44,810 sq kilometers and the number of people that should be evacuated, 3,319,000. The EPR with all LEU or with 30% MOX, and the other reactors would cause fewer deaths of the various types. With an LEU core, the EPR, for example, could cause a maximum of 381 early deaths and 26,430 late fatal cancers.

For the calculations Large uses European Community Standard modeling software (COSYMA). Using the same methods, Electricité de France (EDF) produced different figures. The worst case scenario that EDF has made public concerns the EPR with 100% LEU fuel. The maximum early deaths would be 0, late fatal cancers, 11; and thyroid cancer deaths 1. The land area that should be evacuated is 123 sq km, and the number of people 2,952. The basic reason for the discrepancy between the results of Large and those of EDF is that EDF does not believe that there are any foreseeable circumstances in which the EPR would experience a catastrophic release of radioactivity. The plant is capable of resisting even a terrorist attack from the air, EDF holds. Large argues that, like all high-technology systems, the EPR is at risk of catastrophic failure due to circumstances that cannot be foreseen.

The report was commissioned by Greenpeace France . A summary of the report in English and the report itself can be accessed on the Web site of Large and Associates, www.largeassociates.com/PapersReports.htm .

--posted February 25, 2007

Ton Sang Replaces Temaru in French Polynesia

December 26 the French Polynesian Assembly elected a new president Gaston Tong Sang, mayor of Bora Bora . Ton Sang is leader of the “autonomist” camp, organized around the Tahoeraa party of Gaston Flosse, a personal friend of French president Jacques Chirac. The vote was 31 for Tong Sang and 26 for Oscar Temaru, outgoing president. The government of Temaru, who headed a pro-independence coalition, had received a vote of no confidence December 13 in the Assembly.

Bruno Barrillot, expert with the Polynesian Advisory Council on the Follow-up of the Consequences of Testing (COSCEN) discusses below the accomplishments of the government of Temaru:

The Aftermath of French Nuclear Testing, The Temaru Governmentn's Engagement for Right and Justice

The government of Oscar Temaru and its majority can be proud of their record on the follow-up of the consequences of nuclear tests, since Temaru’s entry into office in June 2005. Six months of study of the atmospheric tests by an inquiry commission in the French Polynesian Assembly resulted in February 2006 in a report that broke the silence that had been maintained by institutions in both Paris and Polynesia . There followed:

--a proposed resolution filed by the socialist group in the Senate in Paris demanding the creation of an inquiry commission on the health and environmental consequences of nuclear testing in Polynesia (March 2006);

--a proposed bill filed by the socialist group in the National Assembly in Paris aimed at the recognition and compensation of people who are victims of nuclear tests or accidents (April 2006);

--an international colloquium on the health, environmental and political aspects of nuclear tests, held in the presidential premises in French Polynesia (June 2006);

` --inauguration at Papeete of a monument to the memory of all the victims of nuclear testing (July 2006);

--trips (on order) to Tahiti by the defense ministry’s delegate on nuclear safety, M. Jurien de la Gravière, five times (between October 2005 and November 2006) to defend the official thesis of “clean tests” or “almost clean” tests before the elected representatives and the Polynesian people;

--unanimous approval by members of the Polynesian Economic, Social, and Cultural Council of a report on the responsibility of the State for the consequences of nuclear testing (November 2006);

--questioning in the Senate in Paris by Mme Hélène Luc, of Mme Alliot-Marie, defense minister, on the consequences of nuclear tests. Mme Alliot-Marie is to announce, under restriction, access to the nuclear testing archives that have been closed for sixty years (November 2006);

--as part of the 2007 defense budget, the financing of the operations of “destruction rehabilitation” planned for several years for the former sites of the Pacific Experiment Center abandoned by the military on the islands and atolls near Moruroa and today in ruins;

--an announcement by the defense ministry that it will put at the disposal of Polynesia the human and material means to assure the monitoring of the health of Polynesians living near to the former test sites and former Polynesian workers at Moruroa. . . .

If France engages in concrete measures to answer the vigorous questioning of the Polynesians, it still refuses to recognize its responsibilities for the consequences of its nuclear tests. In October 2006, M. Jurien de la Gravière still proclaimed, against all the evidence, that all precautions were taken for the protection of the population, that “no test would have justified measures to shelter” and that it was “as a precautionary measure” that populations were either evacuated or placed in “contingency” shelters.

There remains to be accomplished the immense task of obtaining the rights of all the victims of nuclear testing: former workers at Moruroa or the Sahara tests, veterans and populations. The government of M. Temaru is to be honored for its engagement in the process of right and justice. This action of the Polynesians is now known throughout the world, thanks to the media which has supported and saluted the struggle of a “small population” against the “reason” of a State that imposed on it nuclear tests that the State did not dare to do at home. The hope for a justice finally foreseen is an encouragement for all the “small populations” and for all the associations of nuclear test victims to make their voices heard before the international authorities. The government of Algeria has decided to take the baton from the government of M. Temaru by organizing for February 13 and 14, 2007, on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the first French bomb in the Sahara , a big international colloquium on the consequences of nuclear testing

--posted December 27, 2006

The Finnish utility TVO, which is building a European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) at Olkiluoto, announced December 4 that the plant is not expected to begin operating until 2010-2011, some two years later than was originally planned. TVO blamed delays in construction and in manufacturing the main coolant lines for this latest of several announced delays. The utility ordered the plant from Areva-Siemens, which developed the EPR.

Representatives of the French and Italian governments have signed an agreement that will make possible negotiation of a contract for Areva to reprocess 235 tons of irradiated Italian fuel. The law of June 28, 2006, on waste management requires an international agreement specifying when any foreign material to be reprocessed will be received and when the resulting waste will be shipped to the country of origin. The dates in the French-Italian agreement are loose, between 2007 and 2015 for the reception and 2020 and 2025 for the return. Italy ended its nuclear power program in 1987 and has no nuclear weapons program, so will have no use for the plutonium extracted from the fuel.

Sources: Press releases of November 24, 2006, from the French government and from Greenpeace

Dismantling at Marcoule--Slow Progress

A press dossier that the CEA gave to journalists who visited dismantling projects at Fontenay-aux-Roses and Marcoule October 25 and 26 contains some eye-popping statistics. The process of dismantling and decontaminating the UP1 reprocessing plant at Marcoule involves 1000 rooms representing 140,000 cubic meters of radioactive zones. The work on UP1 itself and the related decladding and vitrification/ fission-products-storage facilities will produce 27,000 tons of “weakly” and “very weakly” radioactive waste, not to mention other types of waste, and will necessitate 4,300,000 hours of work and 1,000,000 hours of studies.

The operations began in 1988. By the end of 2005, 4,200 tons of equipment had been dismantled, and 840,000 hours of work carried out. Progress is slowed by such factors as the existence at the decladding facilities of areas that past incidents rendered physically inaccessible. The goal of preparing UP1 to be removed from the list of Basic Nuclear Installations (INB) and categorized as an Installation Classified for the Protection of the Environment (ICPE)—sum of the radioactivity present not to exceed 1,000 curies (37 trillion becquerels)-- is not expected to be reached until 2040.

The repackaging of waste involves two programs. One deals with 60,000 containers of waste from the treatment of liquid effluents, which has been incorporated in asphalt. To date, 6,000 of these containers have been retrieved from their storage site and placed in overpacks of stainless steel. The second program deals with other types of waste at the site: “very highly radioactive waste incorporated in glass at the vitrification facility, waste from the decladding facility (magnesium, graphite, metal), pulverulent waste (resins, zeolites . . . ), and waste rich in alpha emitters.”

Initially an Economic Interest Group (CODEM), made up of the CEA, EDF, and Cogéma was responsible for the decontamination and dismantling of UP1, with the hands-on work being carried out by Cogéma. To clarify roles, CODEM was dissolved at the end of 2004, and the CEA made responsible for the work, which is now conducted by a group belonging to Areva. .

The dossier, “Les grands chantiers de démantélement au CEA,” is available on the CEA’s web site, www.cea.fr .

--posted November 1, 2006

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A Setback for Areva’s Mining Program

Areva, through Areva Resources Canada Inc. owns 37% and Cameco 50% of the Cigar Lake Mine under development in Saskatchewan . In late October Cameco announced that all the existing underground tunnels had been flooded as the result of a rockfall. Areva noted in its Business and Strategy Overview, released in October that it anticipated that Cigar Lake would go into operation in 2007. Now the opening will be delayed. In a press conference held November 1, Cameco stated that it fully expects to complete development of the mine and to be able to extract its ore. However, a plan to deal with the flooding may not be in place for three months. Cogéma/Areva has emphasized the richness of the mine, which was eventually expected to produce 18 million pounds a year of uranium.

--posted November 1, 2006

October 24, 2006 the organization ECCLA (Ecologie du Carcassonnais des Corbières et du Littoral Audois) sent a letter to the president of the CLIC Malvesi (local information committee for Malvesi), demanding that the CLIC work on six questions involving radioactivity from the Malvesi uranium conversion plant. The questions highlight problems at the facility.

ECCLA asks the CLIC to take measures aimed at obtaining a decrease in the level of radioactivity along a road that passes the plant; an analysis of the above-ground and below-ground water and of the soils and sediments at and around the plant; monitoring of agricultural production just outside the plant; a study of the future of the decanting basins at the plant; an explanation of anomalies in samples of sludge stored in the basins; and an epidemiological study of people who have worked at the plant since it began operation in 1958. The organization also asks CLIC to seek a re-examination by French authorities of the classification of the site, with a view to having it declared a Basic Nuclear Installation, and a public informational meeting on the site.

Source: Letter from Pitch Bloch, president of ECCLA, to Ange Mandelli, president of the CLIC Malvesi, October 24, 2006. For additional information contact ECCLA at eccla@wanadoo.FR .

The European Commission has approved the construction of a 1630 MW EPR (European Pressurized Water Reactor) at EDF's Flamanville site (Lower Normandy).