The lifespan of the two French nuclear reprocessing plants, located in La Hague (Manche) and Marcoule (Gard) will be extended “beyond 2040”, declared Thursday the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire.
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It is essential to supplement France’s nuclear reprocessing capabilities. It is for this reason that Bruno Le Maire announced on Thursday March 7 the construction of two new factories on the La Hague site. A plant for reprocessing and another for the production of MOX fuel which will complement the work of the Marcoule plant. The minister also announced the extension of the lifespan of existing sites and new constructions, which can be explained by Emanuel Macron’s desire to launch several new EPRs by 2035-2040.
La Hague: storing and vitrifying waste
When nuclear fuel leaves the reactors of power plants, it must be isolated, up to tens of thousands of years in theory for highly radioactive waste. Initially, this nuclear waste (the most dangerous) heads to La Hague, in the English Channel. OWe will first store them in huge swimming pools for four to seven years. There are four swimming pools in La Hague which keep filling up with waste from France and foreign countries and they are close to saturation. Then, the waste is poured into glass, this is vitrification. Everything is stored in steel containers, still in La Hague. It is Orano, formerly Areva, which has control over these operations.
Bure: bury waste
Then, France planned to bury the waste deep in the ground, in the Meuse, in Bure, at a depth of 500 meters. Robots will store the waste; it would be too dangerous for humans. The Bure site is under construction, tests are being carried out on the rocks, it will not be put into service before 2035-2040. Its cost is estimated at 25 billion euros, the project is called Cigéo, Ultimately, 73,000 m3 of waste will be stored over 83,000 square meters.
Marcoule: transforming waste into MOX
In Marcoule, in the Gard, this Orano site transforms radioactive waste into new fuel. IIt receives uranium and plutonium oxide from spent fuel and, after transformation, it produces MOX which is reused as fuel in certain power stations. This MOX is produced on French soil for other countries such as Japan, the Netherlands or Belgium.
