La Hague Center - Irradiated fuel reprocessing

The La Hague Center is essentially an industrial establishment pertaining to the production division of the CEA. Its main activity is operation of UP 2, which reprocesses spent fuel from French power reactors of type G (metallic natural uranium / graphite / gas) to produce plutonium as a metal or oxide, for both civil and military purposes. Operation of the plant is at present determined by the development of the French nuclear power program as concerning type G reactors, but the existing plant will be completed by the addition, for service in 1975, of a new unit: the H.A.O. (High Activity Oxide). The new unit will be situated up-flow of UP 2, which will then be able to meet European and foreign requirements, with the added capability of reprocessing all types of fuel currently used in power reactors of the various types: graphite/gas, heavy water: light water, fast neutron (breeder). Various pilot units and research laboratories more or less directly connected with spent fuel processing are located at La Hague. Pilot AT 1 was put into service in 1969 to reprocess the cores of Rapsodie and for study of aqueous reprocessing methods, as applicable in industrial plant (to be provided) for the handling of ceramic fuels (UO₂-PuO₂) of very high activity and enrichment. The nominal capacity of the pilot is 1 kg of mixed oxides per day. Pilot Elan II B will be put into service at the end of 1970 within the scope of the 'Elan' program, which bears on the recovery and purification of fission products (strontium 90, Caesium 137, and Promethium 147), and the production of sealed radioactive sources, for irradiation purposes or to equip isotopic power generators. Finally, the establishment includes a solid radioactive waste packing and storage plant managed by the Infratome Company, for waste of all origins. Applied research is represented at the La Hague Center by two units. The oldest of these, installed in 1963, is the Marine Radioecology Laboratory which was transferred in 1968 to a new building specially equipped with facilities for the study of sea-water contamination effects, and with an irradiator for observation of the consequences of heavy doses on the biological development of species. The Electrolytic and Aqueous Corrosion Studies Department installed a building at La Hague in 1968 for research in non-radioactive media (pressurized hot water loops, sea-water loop), plus a number of hot cells for the study of corrosion by water of spent fuel elements. The building is at present being extended to accommodate research on high temperature gaseous conversion and corrosion by sodium, by 1971. The infrastructure of the Center having been calculated with a view to future development, it can still accommodate other branches of activity, and has in fact rendered service in a variety of fields to other organizations, National Defense in particular (decontamination of equipment, discharge of radioactive effluents). The general characteristics of the Center will of course permit the addition of nuclear facilities of various types, but it is in the field of reprocessing that the most promising developments are expected, starting with the putting into service of H.A.O. Completion of the 'Ric and Rac' project (Recovery of Isotopes for Commercialization and Recovery of Actinides for Commercialization) will also introduce the recovery of fission products (development of the 'Elan program'), and such transuranic elements as Neptunium, Americium, and Curium, accumulating in H.A.O. in quantities sufficient for profitable processing. Devised by the Chemistry and Radioisotopes Departments, the project includes the probable erection, in sections, of workshops specially designed for each isotope, and which will be put into construction as the market dictates. Content: 1 - Purpose and structure: Brief background, General features, Purpose, Additional industrial facilities, Applied research, Prospects. 2 - The industrial unit UP 2: The function of the reprocessing plant, The nuclear material, UP 2 reprocessing, UP 2 equipment, Nuclear infrastructure, Technical infrastructure, Administrative infrastructure, Hygiene and health. 3 - Other activities at La Hague: AT 1: Rapsodie core processing plant, Elan II B: Caesium and strontium source production plant, Marine radio-ecology laboratory, Corrosion research. 4 - Appendices: PuO₂ specifications, Organisation chart