French Reactor Running on Uranium Recycled from Used Nuclear Fuel.

[NNadir]

French reactor using full core of recycled uranium fuel

Subtitle:

Unit 2 of the Cruas-Meysse nuclear power plant in south-eastern France was recently restarted with its first full core of recycled uranium fuel. The move marks a major milestone in France's efforts to revive its domestic uranium reprocessing industry.

Excerpts:

Reprocessed uranium (RepU) is derived from used fuel from nuclear reactors that has been processed at Orano's La Hague reprocessing plant. Once enriched, this uranium can be used again to fuel nuclear power reactors.

In France, only the four reactors at the Cruas-Meysse plant in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes are certified to use Enriched Reprocessed Uranium (ERU).

Historically, the enrichment process, requiring centrifuges solely dedicated to RepU, was carried out for industrial and economic reasons by Russia's Rosatom at its Seversk site. However, the new geopolitical situation since the onset of the war in Ukraine may lead to a reevaluation of these contracts...

... "A decade-long effort has been made to revive a uranium reprocessing sector, which was suspended in 2013 (and resumed in 2018), and has just reached a historic milestone," Cédric Lewandowski, Senior Executive Vice-President, Nuclear and Thermal at EDF, said on LinkedIn.

He noted: "Reprocessing spent fuel to extract the energy-potential material (which constitutes 96% of the spent fuel's mass composition), namely uranium, for its second use is a circular economy approach that will save 25% of natural resources in the coming decades. Moreover, this sector emits 30% less CO2 than the natural uranium sector and reduces environmental impact..."

As of this writing, 3/12/2024 at 1 PM EST (US), France's carbon intensity for electrical generation is 43 grams CO₂/kWh compared to Germany's carbon intensity of 540 grams CO₂/kWh



Electricity Map (Accessed 03/12/2024 1 pm EST US)

If one is wondering which of these two countries, Germany or France gives a rat's ass about climate change, I will repeat as I often do, "People lie, to themselves and to each other, but numbers don't lie."

Have a nice afternoon and evening.

[underpants]

1. Thus is one of the 4th generation reactors I think.

[NNadir]

2. No, it's not. It's a normal Gen III PWR completed in 1984 with construction beginning in 1978.

Cruas 2, France

[underpants]

3. Okay.

[NNadir]

4. It's actually a major point. The traditional Gen III PWR dominates the world's nuclear fleet. It means...

...that any nation with a fleet of such reactors that can overcome public stupidity connected with opposing reprocessing can directly burn the recovered uranium. This wouldn't necessarily be a great thing for the mining industry, but it would certainly help to address climate change.

I hope France will expand this program.