[en] France chose the closed fuel cycle at the very beginning of its nuclear program. The reactor and fuel cycle technologies have been continuously improved through R and D program and all major advances have been implemented on industrial scale in a consistent and evolutionary approach. The reprocessing and recycling facilities presently in operations are using mature industrial technologies. They are regulated through very high environmental and proliferation resistance standards. The closed fuel strategy allows extracting from irradiated fuel recoverable fissile materials (uranium and plutonium presently) which can then be recycled. Plutonium is recycled in the form of MOX fuel in PWRs. Reprocessing and MOX fuel fabrication are implemented in France on a commercial basis both for domestic and export markets. By December 2006, about 22700 t of irradiated LWR fuel and 18000 t of GCR fuel originating from France and other countries had been treated in French facilities. In addition, about 2/3 of the 2200 tHM of MOX fuels fabricated in Europe have been fabricated in France. As a second benefit of this fuel strategy, the volume and radiotoxicity of the ultimate waste has been significantly lowered. The aim of further improving waste management and reducing the radiotoxic inventory was pursued in the framework of the Waste Management Act of 1991 with R and D organized along three axis: Separation and transmutation; Disposal in deep geological layers; Long-term (sub)-surface storage. Separation of long-lived elements has been assessed and demonstrated on lab scale experiments by CEA in 2005 on 13 kg HM of UO2 irradiated fuel with an average burn-up of 60 GWd/t. Development work in view of the validation of these promising results on industrial scale is ongoing in connection with the cycles envisaged for future (GENERATION IV) systems in the framework of two acts: the 2005 Energy Policy Act and the 2006 Act on the 'Sustainable management of radioactive materials and waste'. In this respect, three main fuel cycle strategies at different stages of advancement and industrial feasibility are investigated: 1. Separation processes based on co-extraction/co-conversion of uranium and plutonium (COEXTM) - and possibly neptunium - leading to the design of GENERATION III reprocessing plants which are close to near term industrial deployment and are capable of satisfying new market needs (integrated facilities with no pure plutonium separation, regional centres, high efficiency, high MOX performances both for LWRs and Fast reactor). 2. Selective separation of long lived radionuclides from raffinate (with a focus on Am and Cm separation) based on the optimization of DIAMEX-SANEX processes for their recycling in heterogeneous mode in GENERATION IV systems. This option can be implemented with a combination of COEXTM and DIAMEX-SANEX processes. 3. Group extraction of actinides (through GANEX processes) as a long term and challenging R and D goal for a homogeneous recycling of actinides in GENERATION IV fast systems. (author)