French reprocessing and waste management R and D

The R and D facilities, briefly described here, are very large in France, covering α, β and γ research on the laboratory, prototype and pilot plant scales. Thanks to these resources, many innovations have been designed for UP3, concerning the overall process: shearing, dissolution, clarification, offgas treatment, extraction cycles, acid recovery, aqueous and organic effluent treatment, in-line conditioning of process wastes and fission products, process control and analysis. The effort has not stopped with the startup of UP3. A new R and D unit, Atalante, at Marcoule, will start operating in late 1991. Innovative R and D programs have been set up to prepare for the future. (author)