France's new fast reactor fuel reprocessing facility

The purpose of the Marcoule Pilot facility is to conduct prolonged tests on the reprocessing of irradiated fuels on a semi-industrial scale. Major renovation and extension work has been carried out, as parts of the TOR project (Traitment Oxydes Rapides). The main objectives of TOR are to increase the reliability and adapt the facility to new safety requirements, to provide new research and development possibilities and to raise the capacity from 2t/year. This factor will allow reprocessing of spent fuel from the Creys Melville reactor, the Phenix and some foreign (German) fuels. The work carried out is summarised - it involves changes to the existing main building and construction of a building to house the new front end. (U.K.)