Nuclear Fuel in France: an ever changing world - most recent safety concerns of DSIN

The design and management of nuclear fuel have seen many changes in France the last few years. Such changes, brought about by the operating organisation, are essentially based on the increase of the fuel discharge burn up before unloading, the adoption of MOX fuel in reactors, and the improvement and diversification of nuclear fuel products (introduction of fuels of foreign origins, i.e. German, Spanish and Swedish). The French safety authority is not, a priori, opposed to these changes but it has to ensure that, at each step, identified safety problems are being analysed and resolved appropriately. New safety concerns arise in the whole fuel cycle: better care needs to be taken in the handling and transporting of high burn up fuels than fresh UO2 fuels, the use of MOX fuel demands the reinforcement of the radiation protection measures taken at all steps of the fuel cycle (manufacturing, handling during fabrication and in the reactor, transportation, reprocessing and disposal), and imposes a longer cooling period than UO2 fuel. After a comprehensive view of the main regulatory actions of the French nuclear safety authority, the DSIN, supported by the Institute for Nuclear Safety and Protection (IPSN) in the field of nuclear fuel, emphasizing its responsibilities versus those of the operating organisation in particular where the evolution of fuel is concerned, this present paper tries to roughly depict the most recent changes in management and design that affected the nuclear fuel loaded in French pressurized water reactors, such as GEMMES fuel management, penetration of MOX fuel, fuel product development, etc. It also intends to address some of the main current safety and regulatory issues associated with these changes