Concerning non-EDF installations:

• EDF, COGEMA (now Orano Cycle) and the French Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique or CEA) signed an agreement in December 2004 which transferred the management and financing of final shutdown, decommissioning and waste recovery and reconditioning for the UP1 reprocessing facility at Marcoule to the CEA. In return, EDF paid the CEA a one-time financial contribution covering its full share of the cost of outstanding operations, while remaining the owner of its final waste and bearing only the transport and storage costs;
• EDF, AREVA and AREVA NC (now Orano Cycle) signed two agreements in December 2008 and July 2010 defining the legal and financial terms for the transfer to AREVA NC of EDF’s contractual obligations regarding its financial contribution to the dismantling of La Hague installations and the recovery and conditioning of waste. In application of those agreements, EDF paid AREVA NC a one-time financial contribution covering its full share of the cost of outstanding operations, while remaining the owner of its final waste and bearing only the transport and storage costs.
  
  

28.1 Provisions for spent nuclear fuel management

EDF’s currently adopted strategy with regards to the fuel cycle, in agreement with the French State, is to process spent fuel and to recycle the separated plutonium in the form of MOX fuel (Mixed OXide of plutonium and uranium).

The quantities processed by Orano at the request of EDF, totalling approximately 1,100 tonnes per year, are determined based on the quantity of recyclable plutonium in the reactors that are authorised to load MOX fuel.

Consequently, provisions for spent fuel cover services associated with the following:

• removal of spent fuel from EDF’s generation centres, as well as reception and interim storage;
• processing, including conditioning and storage of recyclable matter.
  
  

The processing expenses included in these provisions exclusively concern spent fuel that can be recycled in existing facilities, including the portion in reactors but not yet irradiated.

Expenses are measured based on forecast physical flows at the year-end, with reference to the contracts with Orano which define the terms for implementation of the framework agreement for the period 2008-2040. The most recent contract, signed on 5 February 2016, covers the period 2016-2023. These contracts contain price indexes that are revised annually.

In 2018 the Board of Directors approved resumption of recycling of uranium from reprocessing (which had been suspended in 2013 pending availability of a new industrial schema), with loading of the first fuel assemblies scheduled for 2023, subject to technical adaptations and the necessary authorisations from the Nuclear Safety Authority. The objective is to start recycling in certain 900MW units, and later in certain 1300MW units. The corresponding contracts were signed with the respective suppliers in the second quarter of 2018. In 2019 EDF continued to monitor the plants’ preparation trajectory with reference to those contracts.

The portion of the provision for spent fuel management relating to uranium from reprocessing (€759 million) will be recovered once all the industrial, regulatory and economic conditions for resumption of uranium recycling have been fulfilled, but EDF has no control over fulfilment of some of these conditions (currently, no advance timetable has been set).

This provision also covers long-term storage of spent fuel that cannot currently be recycled in existing installations: plutonium fuel (MOX) or uranium fuel derived from enriched processing, and fuel from Creys-Malville and Brennilis until fourth-generation reactors become available. Dedicated assets are held in association with this provision (see note 38.2.4).

28.2 Provision for waste removal and conditioning – Provision for long-term radioactive waste management

Provisions for waste removal and conditioning

The provisions for waste removal and conditioning are reported separately from 1 January 2017.

They cover the following future expenses for radioactive waste resulting from operations or decommissioning (apart from spent fuel):

• characterisation and conditioning of waste; 
• interim storage of waste.
  
  

Equipment assembly for the conditioning and intermediate storage facility for radioactive waste (installation de conditionnement et d’entreposage des déchets activés – ICEDA) was completed in December 2018 and pre-service testing is currently in process. Information on the identification of EIP equipment (equipment that is important for protection of interests) has been added to the commissioning permit application (DAMS) and the documents required for examination of the commissioning authorisation application sent to the ASN. The ICEDA is expected to start operations in the first half of 2020.

Provisions for long-term radioactive waste management

These provisions concern future expenses for:

• removal and storage of radioactive waste resulting from decommissioning of nuclear installations operated by EDF;
• interim storage, removal and storage of radioactive waste packages resulting from spent fuel processing;
• direct storage, where relevant, of spent fuel that cannot be recycled in existing installations: specifically plutonium fuel (MOX) or uranium fuel derived from enriched processing, and fuel from Creys-Malville and Brennilis;
• EDF’s share of the costs of studies, construction, operation and maintenance, shutdown and surveillance of existing and future storage centres.
  

The volumes of waste concerned by provisions include existing packages of waste and all waste to be conditioned, resulting from plant decommissioning or spent fuel processing at La Hague (comprising all fuel in reactors at 31 December, irradiated or otherwise). These volumes are regularly reviewed, in keeping with the data declared for the purposes of the national waste inventory undertaken by ANDRA.

The provisions for long-term radioactive waste management break down as follows: