Fuel manufacturing in France

The purpose of this paper is to show briefly how criticality safety is organized and implemented in a French fuel production facility. The plant is located in Southern France, near the city of Romans, and is in fact operated by two companies. The whole range of uranium enrichment is present in the plant: for PWRs, low enriched uranium (up to 5%), and for the research reactors, high enriched uranium (from 20 to 93%). Thus, two different products are obtained through very different techniques and handled in very different quantities. This paper will be subdivided into the following parts: a short presentation of the two companies and of their products, the organization of criticality safety in France, criticality safety in storage in Romans plant, and training about criticality safety