France

Eole reactor.
Source: http://www-cadarache.cea.fr/gb/img/eole_eole83b.jpg.

Updated June 2009

While France currently uses HEU for both military and civilian purposes, Paris has been supportive of efforts to reduce the use of the material in both civilian and military sectors. Although France is highly reliant on nuclear power (over 75% of electricity generated in France is derived from nuclear reactors[1]) and is likely to continue to develop nuclear power into the future, it has already moved away from the use of HEU in power reactors (closing its Superphénix breeder reactor in favor of reactors using MOX fuel), and is progressing in the conversion of research reactors to LEU fuels.

Overview of France's HEU Holdings

Military HEU
France is a nuclear weapons state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). French military use of HEU includes nuclear weapons and defense reactors (research reactors and naval propulsion reactors). Albright and Kramer have estimated that as of the end of 2003, France had 29 metric tons (± 7 tons) of HEU in military stockpiles: about 25 metric tons of uranium in primary military stocks, one ton for naval propulsion reactors, and 3.5 tons in spent fuel at military production reactors.[2] Unlike Russia and the United States, which employ HEU fuel in their naval reactors, France's newest submarines use LEU fuel, which can be recycled together with civilian nuclear fuel.[3]

Civilian HEU
France's civilian holdings of HEU are relatively transparent. The French government voluntarily declares its HEU holdings to the IAEA as part of its annual declaration of plutonium stocks (INFCIRC/549). Summary information from France's note verbales to the IAEA is presented in the table below.

France's Holdings of Highly Enriched Uranium (in kilograms) [4]

Location	As of December 31, 2007	As of December 31, 2006	As of December 31, 2005	As of December 31, 2004
HEU at fuel fabrication plants or at other processing facilities	1,249	1,342	1,350	1,369
HEU at civil reactor sites	1,795	3,042	3,072	3,083
HEU held at locations other than civil reactor sites and at enrichment, fuel fabrication or processing plants (e.g laboratories, research centers)	429	431	486	460
Irradiated HEU at civil reactor sites	164	131	93	123
Irradiated HEU held at locations other than civil reactor sites	1,431	1,446	1,490	1,414
Total	5,068	6,392	6,491	6,449

Several tons of France's civilian HEU holdings (an estimated 1.1-2.4 metric tons) is foreign-owned, thus, French-owned material totals 4-5.3 metric tons.[5]

Construction of the RES reactor at Cadarache: placing the reactor vessel inside the confinement vessel. RES will be used to qualify fuel and naval reactor cores.
Source: "French Research Reactors: 2007 Review," Club d'Exploitants de Reacteurs, www.ill.eu.

HEU Production
France has not produced HEU since 1996.[6] France became the first nuclear weapon state to announce that it would cease all production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. This meant the closure of the Pierrelatte enrichment plant, where highly enriched weapon-grade uranium was produced. In September 2008 and March 2009, France organized visits by international experts to observe the dismantlement of Pierrelatte, the first time a nuclear-weapon state has opened the doors of a former military nuclear facility.[7] Although France still has a civilian enrichment plant, it only produces LEU. The new Georges Besse II enrichment plant, inaugurated in May 2009, will also be for LEU production.[8]

HEU Commerce
France has purchased HEU from both Russia and the United States. French companies obtain foreign-owned HEU for fabrication into fuel rods, which are then exported (for example, to Germany's FRM-II). Additionally, France accepts spent HEU fuel for reprocessing in its civilian facilities.

In 1996, France and Russia concluded an agreement for the purchase of 625 kg of HEU (55kg/yr for HFR and 125 kg for Orpheus) over the course of nine years. As of January 2006, all of the Russian HEU had been delivered (a total of 627 kg).[9] Were it to require additional HEU, France is ready to turn to Russia for new purchases. France could also purchase U.S. HEU, although it has not done so in the past decade. It bought 69 kg in HEU credits from the U.S. DOE in 1990 (after promising that it would convert the Réacteur à Haut Flux (High Flux Reactor or RHF) in Grenoble as soon as appropriate LEU fuel became available), when Russian fuel shipments were delayed, but never obtained the U.S. fuel since Moscow began to make good on its contract. As of January 2006, Grenoble's Laue-Langevin Institute (ILL) hoped to sell the American fuel credits to Belgium's Nuclear Research Center (SCK/CEN), which wanted to procure the fuel for its BR2 reactor in Mol. At the time, SCK/CEN was still waiting for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to give it an export license, making the deal possible.[10]

Osiris reactor.
Source: www.ill.eu.

France also imports spent HEU fuel for reprocessing. The recovered HEU is blended down to LEU, and the wastes are returned to the country of origin.[11] As of May 2008, a little over a half of Australia-origin HEU had been reprocessed; Australia no longer employs HEU and has eliminated all of its HEU holdings. [12] France continues to import spent HEU fuel from Belgium.

While the French government has been supportive of cutting back HEU use, nuclear industry personnel are concerned about maintaining market share. In April 2008, for example, an AREVA official concerned about the end of production of HEU at Western enrichment plants suggested that the company store "large quantities" of HEU to ensure future availability for customers requiring HEU fuel.[13] Caroline Jorant, director for nonproliferation and international institutions in AREVA's International and Marketing Division, said that HEU fuel is needed for high-power research reactors until new LEU fuel is developed, while power reactors will one day need fuel enriched to as high as 9-10% U-235 – far above current levels of 3-4%.[14] In a similar vein, AREVA's Jean-Francois Gervais said downblending 93%-enriched material to 4.95% for LWR fuel is "a waste of resources."[15] Industry is likely to support blending down material to 20% U-235 after customers have converted from the use of HEU fuel.

Continuing HEU Use
France's HEU requirements are slowly being reduced, in the military sphere as well as the civilian area. While France's second generation submarines used HEU fuel, its newer submarines use LEU fuels for naval propulsion. Thus, as older boats are decommissioned France will no longer require HEU for naval propulsion. Indeed, France has standardized the fuel used in its naval reactors and civilian reactors, so that they can be reprocessed in the same facilities. In the civilian sphere, France is gradually decommissioning its HEU-fueled reactors (see below), and plans to fuel future reactors with LEU. However, the Jules Horowitz reactor (JHR) is currently slated to start up in 2014 using 27% enriched fuel, until LEU fuel becomes available. (For information on the development of new LEU fuels, see below.) After the JHR ceases employing HEU, the only continuing use for HEU in the civilian sector will be to test new core designs for future fast reactors using mixed-oxide plutonium (MOX) fuel in the Masurca Fast Critical Assembly at Cadarache. While 90% uranium is currently used for this purpose, MOX fuel can be mocked up with 30-35% enriched material (while plutonium can also be employed, LEU cannot be used to mock up MOX fuel).[16]

Fuel Return
While some of France's research reactor fuel is of U.S. origin, France is unlikely to repatriate this fuel to the United States. France is one of six countries currently developing alternatives to disposing of U.S.-origin fuel in the United States (the others are Argentina, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom).[17] According to Albright and Kramer, France is expected to reprocess most of its own spent HEU reactor fuel and blend it down to LEU, although it may not be economically viable to reprocess some of France's spent HEU fuel, which would therefore be disposed of as spent fuel.[18]

HEU-fueled Facilities in France

Location	Reactor	Characteristics	Status
Cadarache	Eole	Tank in pool, critical assembly Up to 93% HEU in the past, now MOX	Start-up 1965, operational.
Cadarache	Harmonie	Tank in pool	Operational 1965-1996. Fuel may still be in Cadarache.
Cadarache	Jules Horowitz	Tank in pool, research reactor at least 100 MW thermal, to use LEU	Under construction; will replace Osiris. Set to start-up in 2014 with 27% enriched fuel and convert to 19.75% enriched fuel when that fuel is available.
Cadarache	Masurca	Critical assembly, fast 3 MW, plutonium, and uranium, natural or enriched to 25%	Startup 1966, operational.
Cadarache	Minerve	Pool, critical assembly 100 kWt; 90-93% HEU now MOX	Startup 1959, moved to Cadarache from Fontenay in 1977; operational and can be converted with currently available LEU fuel.
Cadarache	Scarabée (INB 24)	Pool, test reactor 100 MW thermal; HEU fuel	Startup 1982, shut down 1996. All HEU fuel sent to La Hague.
Grenoble, Institute Max Von Laue-Paul Langevin (ILL)	Réacteur à Haut Flux (RHF)	Heavy water research reactor 58.3 MWt; up to 93% HEU	Startup 1971, currently not a candidate for conversion due to lack of fuel, but was signed MoU with DOE for conversion "when fuel available."
Grenoble	Siloé	Pool reactor with open core 35MWt; 93% HEU until 1996	Startup 1963, shut down 1997. All HEU fuel sent to La Hague.
Grenoble	Siloette	Critical model of Siloé	Operational 1964-1985 (?).
Grenoble	Mélusine	Pool reactor with open core 1 MW thermal, raised to 8 MW thermal in 1971; up to 93% HEU	Operational 1958-1988. All HEU fuel sent to La Hague.
Marcoule	Phénix	Fast breeder reactor 563MWt; used HEU, now uses MOX	Startup 1973; to be shut down 2009-10. Has fuel needed for this period on site already. Now using MOX, but has HEU on site.
Saclay	Isis	Critical assembly, mock-up of Osiris.	Startup 1966, converted to LEU.
Saclay	Orphée	Pool research reactor 14 MW; up to 93% HEU	Startup 1980. Currently not a candidate for conversion due to lack of fuel, but was signed MoU with DOE for conversion "when fuel available."
Saclay	Osiris	Pool reactor 70 MW	Startup 1966, converted from HEU to LEU fuel in 1995-96. Carries out tests of the high-density UMo fuel that is under development for research reactors and produces isotopes for industry and medicine, periodically with use of HEU targets.
Saclay	Ulysse	Argonaut training reactor 100kW; 20-90 HEU	Startup 1961, shut down in February 2007 without conversion.
Strasbourg University	Strasbourg-Cronenbourg	Argonaut training reactor 0.1 MWt; 93% HEU	Operational 1966-1997, fuel removed 2000, dismantled 2008.

Table sources:
[A] Nuclear Research Reactors in the World, IAEA database, http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/rrdb, last updated 1999.
[B] Ole Reistad and Styrkaar Hustveit, "HEU Fuel Cycle Inventories and Progress on Global Minimization," The Nonproliferation Review, July 2008, 15/2, http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/npr/vol15/152_reistad_appendix2.pdf.
[C] Mary Byrd Davis, "Nuclear France: materials and sites: Provence-Alpes-Cote-D'Azur," http://www.francenuc.org/en_sites/prov_cadar3_e.htm.
[D] Mary Byrd Davis, "Nuclear France: materials and sites: Rhone-Alpes," http://www.francenuc.org/en_sites/rhone_cen_e.htm.
[E] Mary Byrd Davis, "Nuclear France: materials and sites: Ile De France-Grande Couronne," http://www.francenuc.org/en_sites/idfg_sac2_e.htm.
[F] "GTRI: More Than Two and a Half Successful Years of Reducing Nuclear Threats," NNSA Fact Sheet, March 2007, available: http://www.sgpproject.org/Personal%20Use%20Only/070313gtri.htm.
[G] Mary Byrd Davis, "Nuclear France: materials and sites: Alsace," http://www.francenuc.org/en_sites/als_stras_e.htm.

Masurca reactor.
Source: "French Research Reactors: 2007 Review," Club d'Exploitants de Reacteurs, www.ill.eu.

Conversion and Shutdown of HEU-Fueled Reactors and Reactor Projects

As a country highly reliant on nuclear power, France is committed to maintaining a high level of nuclear research. It possesses unique facilities for research into fourth-generation nuclear fuels. Fuels to make it possible to cease using HEU in all of these facilities are under development, both in France and elsewhere. The French U-Mo fuel development group consists of CEA, CERCA, COGEMA, Framatome-ANP, and Technicatome; it has been working since 1999.[19] When the development of high density UMo fuels ran into some difficulties, the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) increased its commitment to research and development, including international collaboration. According to JHR head Daniel Iracane, France is "deeply committed" to developing a low-enriched, reprocessable fuel for use in its research reactors.[20] Indeed, he noted that from the beginning France made the policy choice to use LEU in its new JHR reactor, and was examining the possibility of starting up the JHR with an alternative silicide fuel that has a lower enrichment level than the 27% enriched silicide fuel being used in current tests.[21]

As of 2009, three critical assemblies and two reactors have stopped using HEU (and are instead using MOX fuels), while three reactors and one critical assembly that had used HEU were shut down. Two reactors, the Réacteur à Haut Flux (RHF) at the Institute Max Von Laue-Paul Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble (one of the world's premier sources of neutrons, which gets funding from Germany and the United Kingdom, as well as France) and the Orphée at the Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (LLB) in Saclay can not be converted with fuel that is currently available. However, in 1998 the French institutes pledged to convert the reactors to LEU fuel; France and the United States signed memorandums of understanding to convert the facilities when fuel becomes available. The U.S. Department of Energy is currently working on LEU fuel that the two reactors should be able to use.

The reactor hall at Phénix.
Source: "French Research Reactors: 2007 Review," Club d'Exploitants de Reacteurs, www.ill.eu.

Conversion of the RHF is being examined. The trinational convention that governs ILL currently runs through 2013, but the institute intends to operate the reactor until 2020 or 2025. According to ILL reactor division director Herve Guyon and ILL director Colin Carlile, conversion is by no means out of the question, even for only a decade of operation (2015-2025). In January 2006, Guyon said that he had contracted with CEA for new neutronics calculations to determine the consequences of a switch to LEU fuel. The earliest date the high-density fuel needed is likely to be qualified is 2013. ILL currently has access to enough fuel to last until 2011 (it obtained 627 kg of HEU fuel from Russia in exchange for participation in work at ILL), but it takes some two years to fabricate the single, 1.5 meter high fuel element the reactor currently uses.[22]

Policy Issues

The French government is likely to support international efforts to reduce the use of HEU in civilian facilities, so long as the caveat "as soon as technically feasible" remains. Because of the delay in the development of the new high-density LEU fuel needed for the Jules Horowitz reactor (JHR), currently under construction in Cadarache, Paris will not support any HEU reduction efforts that preclude the use of the 27% fuel in the JHR for until the reactor is launched. Once fuels are developed for the RHF and the Orphée, Paris is likely to move forward on their conversion (the French signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Department of Energy to this effect in 1998).

Where international policy is concerned, France has supported increased transparency of HEU stockpiles. In its 2005 NPT Committee III Statement, France said that it is for transparency of HEU stocks: "My country is convinced that HEU stocks would benefit from the adoption of [disclosures similar to those on civil Pu]."[23] France has drafted HEU guidelines, along the lines of the existing plutonium guidelines (INFCIRC 549), that include measures on transparency, physical protection, and good management. However, efforts to promote the discussion of these guidelines appear to have stalled since 2006.

One of the first countries to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (along with the United Kingdom), and the only Nuclear Weapon State to have dismantled its test site and installations for the production of fissile material for weapons, France has been promoting the negotiation of a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, which would cover fissile materials for weapons.[24] Thus, France appears open to efforts to reduce HEU use in both the civil and weapons spheres, though as of 2009 Paris had no known plans to promote efforts in these areas itself.

Sources:
[1]"Nuclear Power in France," World Nuclear Association website, May 2009, http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf40.html; Areva, "Reference Document," http://www.areva.com, p. 60 .
[2]ISIS, "Military and Excess Stocks of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) in the Acknowledged Nuclear Weapon States," Global Stocks of Nuclear and Explosive Materials, June 11, 2004, revised June 30, 2005, http://www.isis-online.org/global_stocks/end2003/military_excess_heu.pdf.
[3]"Direction des applications militaires," CEA website, http://www-dam.cea.fr/statique/dossiers/propulsion/avenir.htm; "Les chaufferies nucléaires françaises embarquées," Cols Bleus No. 2412, 11 October 1997, available on France's Defense Ministry website at: http://www.defense.gouv.fr/marine/enjeux_defense/marine_et_societe/environnement/nucleaire/les_chaufferies_nucleaires_francaises_embarquees.
[4] INFCIRC /549/Add.5 "Communication Received from France Concerning Its Policies regarding the Management of Plutonium,"dated October 30, 2008; August 20, 2007; December 22, 2006; November 8, 2005, http://www.iaea.or.at/.
[5] According to Albright and Kramer, Australia had an estimated 190 kg (initial mass) of HEU stored in France at the end of 2003 awaiting reprocessing at the La Hague plant. Similarly, Belgium had about 400-500 kilograms (initial mass) of HEU awaiting reprocessing. During reprocessing, which is expected to start in 2005, this HEU will be blended down to 1% enriched uranium. The Netherlands also had about 65 kg stored in France awaiting fabrication into fuel. About 400 kg of HEU from Russia were stored in France for Germany's FRM-II reactor (one core, 8 kg, was shipped to Germany in the summer of 2003). In addition, Germany contracted with France to reprocess spent HEU from the closed KNK-II at its fast reactor reprocessing facility. David Albright and Kimberly Kramer, "Tracking Inventories of Civil Highly Enriched Uranium," February 2005, revised August 2005, http://www.isis-online.org/global_stocks/end2003/civil_heu_watch2005.pdf.
[6] "Status of HEU Production in the Five Acknowledged Nuclear Weapon States, end 2003," http://www.isis-online.org/global_stocks/end2003/military_excess_heu.pdf.
[7] "Nuclear disarmament: France's practical commitment," Working paper submitted by France to the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 NPT Review Conference, 13 May 2009, NPT/CONF.2010/PC.III/WP.36, Reaching Critical Will website, http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/legal/npt/prepcom09/papers/WP36.pdf.
[8] "Enrichment: AREVA inaugurates the first cascade at its Georges Besse II plant," 18 May 2009, AREVA website, http://www.areva-np.com/scripts/press/publigen/content/templates/show.asp?P=1045&L=US. For more information, see "Georges Besse II: A new era for enrichment, "AREVA brochure, http://www.areva-nc.com/areva-nc/liblocal/docs/download/GBII/brochure_GBII%20GB.pdf; on joint French-Urenco cooperation in centrifuge enrichment, see draft law: http://www.senat.fr/rap/l05-052/l05-0520.html.
[9] Ann MacLachlan and Daniel Horner, "BR2 set to get U.S. HEU in 'credits' deal with ILL, DOE," NuclearFuel, Vol. 31, No. 2 (January 16, 2006).
[10] NuclearFuel, January 11, 1999, p.1 and NuclearFuel, June 17, 1996, p.1, as cited in MacLachlan and Horner, ibid..
[11] Albright, op. cit. See also: "Cogema's Inventory of Spent Fuel at La Hague," SpentFuel, January 30, 2006, p. 4.
[12] Email communication with Ann MacLachlan, Platts Nuclear Publications, May 15, 2008.
[13] Ann MacLachlan, "Areva proposes secure storage to ensure some HEU for future use," NuclearFuel, April 7, 2008.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Massimo Salvatores, Amine Khalil, Gilles Bignan, Robert Hill, Robert Jacqmin, and Jean Tommasi, "Advanced Fast Reactor Development Requirements: is there any need for HEU?" Cadarache/Argonne, April 2006.
[17] GAO Report GAO-05-57, Nuclear Nonproliferation: DOE Needs to Consider Options to Accelerate the Return of Weapons-Usable Uranium from Other Countries to the United States and Russia, November 2004.
[18] Albright and Kramer, p. 11.
[19] J.-M. Hamy, A. Languille, B. Guigon, P. Lemoine, C. Jarousse, M. Boyard, and J.-L. Emin, "Status as of March 2002 of the UMo Development Program," Transactions of the 6th International Topical Meeting on Research Reactor Fuel Management (RRFM 2002), Ghent, Belgium, March 17-20, 2002, pp. 33-39. Cerca is working on LEU fuels to be used in the United States and Germany, as well as France and elsewhere, testing many of the fuels in France's Osiris reactor. For example, see "FRM-2 can't run on low-enriched fuel, Munich experts calculate," NuclearFuel, Vol.30, No. 11 (May 23, 2005).
[20] Presentation by JHR program director Daniel Iracane, Technical Workshop on HEU Minimization in Oslo, June 18, 2006.
[21] Currently, a 4.8 gU/cm3 U3Si2 fuel is being used, however, CERCA is qualifying a higher density (5.8 gU/cm3) fuel that could possibly be used in the JHR; however, more testing is required and performance may not be the same as with the 4.8 gU/cm3 fuel. Iracane, op. cit.
[22] Ann MacLachlan and Daniel Horner, "BR2 set to get U.S. HEU in 'credits' deal with ILL, DOE," NuclearFuel, Vol. 31, No. 2 (January 16, 2006).
[23] "Pour ce qui le concerne, mon pays est déterminé à poursuivre les efforts de transparence déjà entrepris, notamment en matière de sûreté. S'agissant des matières nucléaires, la France est membre du groupe des pays signataires des directives adoptées sur la gestion du plutonium civil et à ce titre elle publie annuellement l'état de ses stocks civils. Mon pays est également convaincu que la gestion des stocks d'uranium hautement enrichi gagnerait à l'adoption de directives similaires," http://www.un.int/france/documents_francais/050519_tnp_comite3_patrick_villemur.htm.
[24] See, for example, the 31 March 2008 speech by President Nicolas Sarkozy at the launch of Le Terrible, in Cherbourg, French embassy to the United Kingdom website, http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/President-Sarkozy-s-speech-at,10430.html.

This material is produced independently for NTI by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2008 by MIIS.