Is the French fuel cycle management an asset for international business?

In order to comfort its energy independence and diminish the amount of radioactive waste, France has chosen to close its fuel cycle since long. Thanks to the size of the fleet of reactors operating in France, reprocessing techniques have been validated on an industrial scale and France is now the only country to master these technologies. The French strategy of closing the fuel cycle allows, first, the vitrification of high-level radioactive wastes and their storing in passive installations before their definitive disposal and secondly, it allows the recycling of fissile materials. Several other countries like Japan, United-Kingdom, the Netherlands and China soon have also chosen to close their fuel cycle. Plutonium recycling is made through the fabrication of MOX (mixed uranium and plutonium oxides) fuel in the MELOX plant with an output of 120 tons a year. A second recycling of spent MOX fuel in PWR is unlikely because of the poor isotopic quality of the plutonium, the recycling will be possible and economically competitive in fast reactors when these 4. generation reactors take over. The important, complete and unique experience of AREVA in terms of fuel cycle from fuel fabrication to waste vitrification via plutonium recycling is a relevant asset in the competitive international nuclear energy market. (A.C.)