EDF’s needs are covered by Orano in France, as well as other international producers such as Cameco in Canada, Converdyn in the United States and Tenex in Russia.
EDF meets its enrichment needs through global enrichers Orano (France), Urenco (UK, Germany, the Netherlands, United States) and Tenex (Russia), primarily through fixed-price contracts decreasing on a constant currency basis.
Since the 1990s, reprocessing has made it possible to recycle within the reactors uranium from processing spent fuel, which represents approximately 95% of the spent fuel mass.
Reprocessing was suspended in 2013, pending the availability of a new industrial scheme.
In 2018, the Board of Directors approved the restart of a robust, competitive and efficient sector, with the first assemblies planned to be loaded in 2023, subject to technical changes made and the necessary authorisations obtained from the safety authority. The corresponding contracts were signed with the respective suppliers in 2018. Pending the effective restart of the sector, the reprocessed uranium is stored in a stable form.
EDF has two sources of fuel assemblies: one is internal, via its Framatome subsidiary, while the other is external, the main external supplier being Westinghouse.
EDF is responsible for what happens to its spent fuel and how it is processed and for the related waste, without any possibility of transfer of responsibility or limitation intime. Orano is responsible for processing spent fuel and ANDRA for the management of the long-term storage of final waste, in accordance with the Codified Law of 28 June 2006 on the long-term management of radioactive materials and waste.
EDF’s current strategy for the nuclear fuel cycle, in agreement with the French government, is to process spent fuel and wherever possible recycle substances such as plutonium separated in this process in the form of MOx fuel. The processed quantities are determined by the amount of recycled plutonium in reactors allowed to load MOx fuel (“equal flows” principle). The recycling capacity of nuclear units in the French fleet has allowed the processing of around 1,100 tonnes of spent fuel per year.
In addition, and in anticipation of the storage needs of the nuclear generation fleet, EDF is currently working on the design of a large spent fuel storage pool. This will make possible the long-term storage (for around 100 years) of spent MOx and ERU fuel from PWRs and from fuel assemblies of the Superphénix fast-neutron reactors, currently stored in the spent fuel storage pool at the Creys-Malville power plant pending multi-recycling in third-generation pressurised water reactors, or recycling in fourth-generation reactors (Gen IV).
The French National Plan for the Management of Radioactive Materials and Waste (PNGMDR) for 2016-2018 identified the need for additional spent fuel storage capacity by 2030; in the light of this, it also required EDF to lodge a request for permission to create one by 2020.
The fifth edition of the PNGMDR for 2019-2021 was the subject of a public debate in 2019, organised by France’s national public debate commission (CNDP), the minutes of which were published on 25 November 2019. In their capacity as owners, France’s Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) and government also published their conclusions in the form of a decision published in the OJ, noting “the continuation of work related to the implementation of new centralized storage capacities under water” and “[the evolution of] the regulatory framework applicable to the management of very low-level waste”, two improvements proposed by EDF in its stakeholder report.
Spent fuel awaiting processing is temporarily stored underwater in cooling pools, first in pools at the plants and subsequently in those of Orano’s reprocessing plant in La Hague. The storage conditions are recognised as being safe over a century-scale period of time. Approximately ten years after the spent enriched natural uranium fuel has been unloaded from the reactor, it is processed to separate the recyclable products from waste. The waste is subsequently conditioned and temporarily stored at the La Hague site in specific premises.
The relationship between EDF and Orano concerning the transport, processing and recycling of spent fuel was formalised for the 2008-2040 period by a framework agreement signed on 19 December 2008.
In February 2016, EDF and Orano signed an implementation agreement covering the 2016-2023 period as well as the associated supply contracts for the MOx assemblies.
In September 2016, EDF, Orano and Framatome entered into an agreement providing for the supply of uranium, conversion and enrichment services, and assembly manufacturing for the fuel supply of the Hinkley Point C reactors.
Radioactive waste, depending on its nature, level of radioactivity and the lifespan of its radionuclide components, has been classified into different categories: from High-Level Waste (HLW), to Very Low-Level Waste (VLLW) passing by Low-Level Waste (LLW) and Intermediate-Level Waste (ILW). It is called Long-Lived (LL) when it remains active for more than 31 years.
The processing of spent fuel enables the vitrification of HLW-LL, which provides very high-quality conditioning with a reduced volume. The waste is then temporarily stored at La Hague in specific facilities. For example, all of the Long-Lived High-Level Waste produced in this way, corresponding to the operation of the early plants and to 50 years of operation of the current PWR facilities, would represent a volume of approximately 9,300 cubic metres (the electricity consumption of one million people for one year generates approximately 3 cubic metres of HLW-LL).
The structures of the assemblies (shells and nozzles, clad pieces, etc.) separated during the processing of spent fuel, constitute ILW-LL. They are currently compacted and conditioned in stainless steel containers. ILW-LL waste also results from certain operating, maintenance and dismantling activities. For example, the total volume ofILW-LL waste, including in particular the waste from the operation and decommissioning of shut down facilities, including Uranium Natural Graphite Gas Reactors and the waste from the current PWR facilities, taking into account the 50-year operating life of the power plants and the decommissioning operations, would represent about 37,000 cubic metres. It generates less heat compared to HLW-LL and thus is suitable for faster storage than HLW-LL because it does not require cooling.
HLW-LL and ILW-LL wastes from the reprocessing of spent fuel are temporarily stored in dedicated facilities in La Hague, pending the implementation of the storage in deep geological layers, as is currently envisaged as part of ANDRA’s Centre industriel de stockage géologique (Cigéo) project.
Cigéo is also the French deep geological storage facility project for ILW-LL and HLW-LL radioactive waste. It is designed to store highly radioactive and long-lived waste produced by all current French nuclear facilities until their decommissioning, and by the processing of spent fuel used in nuclear power plants. After 15 years of research, evaluation and public debate, the principle of deep geological storage was adopted by Law no. 2006-739 of 28 June 2006 on the sustainable management of radioactive materials and waste as a safe long-term solution to manage this type of waste without shifting the burden onto future generations.
The centre is to be located in the east of France at the border of the Meuse and Haute-Marne departments. Cigéo will consist of surface facilities that will be used to receive and prepare waste packages as well as to excavate and build the necessary underground structures. The waste will be stored in underground facilities some 500 metres below ground in an impermeable argillaceous rock formation able to contain radioactivity over very long periods (several hundreds of thousands of years). Cigéo is designed to operate for at least 100 years and provide flexibility in order to give future generations a maximum number of possibilities to adapt it as needed.
The codified Law no. 2016-1015 of 25 July 2016, which specifies the details of the creation of a reversible deep storage facility, represents the fulfilment of an important prerequisite before obtaining approval of the Cigéo project for the management of HLW-LL, ILW-LL radioactive waste. ANDRA is continuing its design studies with a view to an application for permission to build the facility being submitted by the end of 2020.
ANDRA’s schedule calls for a pilot industrial phase by 2030, followed by the start of delivery of the first waste (at this stage, the baseline for producers is still for intake of the first waste packages in 2031). On 15 January 2018, the ASN gave its opinion on the DOS (list of safety options) submitted by Cigéo in which it considered the project had on the whole reached a satisfactory technological maturity at that stage. The ASN’s draft opinion requires that alternatives to storing bituminous waste untreated at Cigéo be studied. In September 2019, the expert panel instructed by DGEC in September 2018 to review the management of bituminous waste concluded that in principle, various handling options were feasible (storage or neutralisation), whilst emphasising the importance of further research to identify the most appropriate option.
