Centralised spent fuel storage

France has a large nuclear power programme with about 50 nuclear power plants generating roughly 1300t of spent fuel a year. She has decided to continue reprocessing and recycling the recovered plutonium. This is being done for LWR fuels at La Hague, where the existing plant has been already carried out prompt reprocessing of more than 1300t. Two additional large 800tU/year plants, UP3 and UP2 800, will be on line in 1988 and 1991 respectively, to accommodate domestic fuel and meet the needs of foreign clients. To receive these fuels, a major spent fuel reception and storage programme has been implemented at La Hague. This facility is described and each stage from reception and unloading and storage in pools is explained. At La Hague there is dry reception for unloading the fuels into the new pools. For smaller storage capacities, dry storage is cheaper but for large capacities the pool is less expensive. Loading and unloading can be automated. Centralised storage prior to reprocessing reduces the amount of handling and reshuffling required. (UK)