[en] The last legislative texts of the first trimester 2003 relative to safety are given here: agreements, radiation protection, transport, surveillance are the essential of these texts. (N.C.)

[en] Recycling is an economic necessity, since 97% of the uranium used in a nuclear reactor can be recovered. It also has the advantage that the products can be separated and suitable storage arrangements made for the dangerous, long-lived radioactive waste. The used fuel elements are cut up into small pieces, dissolved in acids, and the uranium and plutonium fractions separated and returned to the power stations. Further recycling capacity is required to meet the needs of the light water reactors in France. (N.C.)

[en] The Compagnie generale des matieres nucleaires (Cogema), which was set up at the beginning of 1976, has received from the Commissariat a l'energie atomique (CEA) all the assets held by the CEA in the field of the fuel cycle. Cogema's activities will consequently cover natural uranium mining and production, enrichment services through its two subsidiaries Eurodif and Coredif, as well as reprocessing services for spent fuel. In the reprocessing field, Cogema inherits from the CEA 20 years experience over a wide spectrum of activities, from reprocessing of fuel from gas-graphite reactors in the Marcoule and La Hague plants to experimental treatment of fast breeder reactor fuels. For reprocessing fuel from light-water reactors, Cogema put the HAO plant at La Hague into operation in May 1976. This facility has at present a 400t/a capacity and will reach 800t/a in 1980. Associated with the Engineering Company Saint-Gobain Techniques Nouvelles (SGN), which participated in the construction of all the industrial reprocessing facilities of the CEA, of the Eurochemic plant at Mol, Belgium, and of the Tokai-Mura plant in Japan, the company has very great experience in designing and building reprocessing plants. Cogema is also involved, through United Reprocessors GmbH, in a technical information exchange programme with its United Kingdom and Federal Republic of Germany partners. United Reprocessors is a joint subsidiary of Cogema, of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) and of the FRG company Kernbrennstoff Wiederaufarbeitungsgesellschaft mbH (KEWA). It will also continue to benefit from all the necessary scientific and technical support from the CEA, which will be in charge of improving the basic reprocessing techniques (laboratories and chemical engineering facilities at Fontenay-aux-Roses) and also to carry out cold and hot pilot plant experiments at Marcoule. The paper describes how Cogema intends, in collaboration with its partners of United Reprocessors, to use all the experience obtained and the means available in order to handle the numerous problems still arising when reprocessing irradiated fuels. Aspects concerning reliability and plant safety are emphasized. (author)

[en] For more than 20 years Cogema has been operating units of vitrification of high level radioactive wastes. 3 units are currently working: - AVM at Marcoule, this unit was opened in 1978 and its nominal production capacity is 15 kg of glass per hour, - R7 and T7 units that were put into service in 1989 and 1992 respectively, both are on the site of La Hague and are equipped with 3 vitrification lines, each line having a production rate of 25 kg/h. By the end of july 1997, 7840 glass containers had been produced which represents the processing of 6300 m³ of liquid solution of fission products. (A.C.)

[en] Published in summary form only

[en] After outlining the present situation in the reprocessing industry in France, the features of the reprocessing system with the controls required are presented. The main functions needed to control the process are described

[en] Development program of Cogema La Hague started in 1982 for operation in 1989 of a new plant UP3 which will reprocess 800 tons of uranium/year from LWR fuels and modification of the UP2 plant to obtain in 1992 a second plant UP2 800 with the same capacity

[en] Cogema operates two major reprocessing plants in France - one at Marcoule, the other at La Hague. The Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique has developed for Cogema a continuous industrial process for solidifying highly active wastes coming from these and any future plants. After several years of development at the pilot levels, this industrial process has been working on a large-scale demonstration plant since June last year. The plant is called the 'Marcoule Vitrification Workshop' (Atelier de Vitrification de Marcoule AVM)

[en] COGEMA (Compagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires) is a private company entirely owned by the C.E.A. Its activity covers the whole of the fuel cycle: uranium mining, production of concentrates from the extracted ore, conversion into hexafluoride, enrichment, fabrication of fuel assemblies, reprocessing of spent fuel, and packaging of waste. These different types of activity are reviewed

[en] As of December 31, 1987, Cogema's La Hague reprocessing services have benefitted 16 utilities: nine West German, two Swiss, one Japanese, one Dutch, one Belgian and two French (EDF and SENA). The fuels reprocessed on behalf these 16 utilities were sent by 27 plants representing 50 reactors, including 43 PWRs and 7 BWRs. This represents a total installed capacity of 38500 MWe. The contract conditions may vary slightly from one customer to another. Interim pond storage before reprocessing is required. Actual reprocessing with retrieval of the finished products (after possible interim storage) in the form of: concentrated uranyl nitrate and oxide for uranium and respectively plutonium. Interim storage of wastes in untreated form, awaiting construction of future packaging facilities that will permit transfer of the wastes to final disposal sites in France or to the clients' countries. Contracts signed so far for the UP2 plant represent about 10000 t, that is about 2000 t for foreign electric utilities and about 8000 t for French utilities. Added to these contracts are 7000 t to be reprocessed in the UP3 plant for foreign utilities. 1 fig