The lifespan of the two French nuclear fuel recycling plants, located in La Hague (Manche) and Marcoule (Gard) will be extended “beyond 2040”, declared this Thursday, March 7, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Mayor.
Bruno Le Maire, visiting the Orano site in La Hague with the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure, also announced the launch of studies to build “two new factories in La Hague, for the manufacture of recycled MOX fuel and reprocessing.
“A new page in the nuclear industry”
“The President of the Republic decided to continue the policy of fuel processing and recycling beyond 2040” during the nuclear policy council held on February 26, without however quantifying the expenses that will result from it, said specified Bruno Le Maire.
“A new page in the nuclear industry will open. The time for major national projects has returned,” added the Minister of the Economy, assuring that “France’s energy independence” requires three levers: “ sobriety and energy efficiency, renewable energies, and nuclear power with the construction of six new EPRs.
“Nothing is more precious than having energy independence,” he said, after visiting the reprocessing site which employs 5,700 people a few kilometers west of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. The general director of Orano Nicolas Maes spoke to him of a “historic event” and praised “the confidence that the government” places in his group to process nuclear fuels.
The Orano plant (formerly Cogema or Areva) in La Hague has “treated” since 1976 40,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel from all over the world. The recoverable material, i.e. uranium and plutonium reusable in a reactor, is returned to the plant operator as new fuel. The rest, fission products and non-recoverable ultimate waste, are either vitrified and stored on site, or released in gaseous form into the atmosphere or liquid into the Channel, “without impact on health” according to the group’s communication.