Nuclear Power in France

Briefing Paper 28

August 2006

France derives 75% of its electricity from nuclear energy. This is due to a long-standing policy based on energy security.

France is the world's largest net exporter of electricity, and gains over EUR 3 billion per year from this.

France has been very active in developing nuclear technology, and reactor technology is a major export.

France has 59 nuclear reactors operated by Electricite de France (EdF) with total capacity of over 63 GWe, supplying over 426 billion kWh per year of electricity, 78% of the total generated there. In 2005 French electricity generation was 549 billion kWh net and consumption 482 billion kWh - 7700 kWh per person. Over the last decade France has exported 60-70 billion kWh net each year. See also EdF web site.

The present situation is due to the French government deciding in 1974, just after the first oil shock, to expand rapidly the country's nuclear power capacity. This decision was taken in the context of France having substantial heavy engineering expertise but few indigenous energy resources. Nuclear energy, with the fuel cost being a relatively small part of the overall cost, made good sense in minimising imports and achieving greater energy security.

As a result of the 1974 decision, France now claims a substantial level of energy independence and almost the lowest cost electricity in Europe. Over 90% of its electricity is nuclear or hydro.

Recent policy

In 1999 a parliamentary debate reaffirmed three main planks of French energy policy: security of supply (France imports more than half its energy), respect for the environment (especially re greenhouse gases) and proper attention to radioactive waste management. It was noted that natural gas had no economic advantage over nuclear for base-load power, and its prices were very volatile. Despite "intense efforts" there was no way renewables and energy conservation measures could replace nuclear energy in the foreseeable future.

Early in 2003 France's first national energy debate was announced, in response to a "strong demand from the French people", 70% of whom had identified themselves as being poorly informed on energy questions. A poll had shown that 67% of people thought that environmental protection was the single most important energy policy goal. However, 58% thought that nuclear power caused climate change while only 46% thought that coal burning did so.

The debate was to prepare the way for defining the energy mix for the next 30 years in the context of sustainable development at a European and at a global level. The role of nuclear power was central to this, along with specific decisions concerning the European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR), and defining the role of renewable energies in the production of electricity, in thermal uses and transport.

In May 2006 the EdF board approved construction of a new 1630 MWe EPR unit at Flamanville, Normandy, alongside two 1300 MWe units. The decision is seen as "an essential step in renewing EDF's nuclear generation mix". Italian utility ENEL will have a 12.5% share in the new plant, taking rights to 200 MWe of its capacity and being involved in design, construction and operation of it.

In January 2006 the President announced that the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) was to embark upon designing a prototype Generation IV reactor to be operating in 2020, bringing forward the timeline for this by some five years. France has been pursuing three Gen IV technologies: gas-cooled fast reactor, sodium-cooled fast reactor, and very high temperature reactor (gas-cooled). While Areva has been working on the last, the main interest in it has been in the USA, as well as South Africa and China. CEA is likely to focus on the fast reactors on the basis that they will produce less waste and will better exploit uranium resources, including the 220,000 tonnes of depleted uranium and some reprocessed uranium stockpiled in France.

If the CEA embarks on the sodium-cooled design, there is plenty of experience to draw on and they would go straight to a demonstration plant - the main innovation would be substituting gas for water as the intermediate coolant. If the gas-cooled fast reactor is selected, that is entirely new and would require a small prototype as first step - the form of its fuel would need to be unique. Neither would operate at a high enough temperature for hydrogen production, so pursuing either of them would leave the very high temperature R&D to the USA and east Asia. The CEA's current plan is to spend about EUR 40 million per year on Gen IV R&D, about half of this on the gas-cooled design, but the new emphasis will require a considerable increase in budget, even with some foreign involvement.

Economic Factors

France's nuclear power program has cost some FF 400 billion in 1993 currency, excluding interest during construction. Half of this was self-financed by Electricité de France, 8% (FF 32 billion) was invested by the state but discounted in 1981, and 42% (FF 168 billion) was financed by commercial loans. In 1988 medium and long-term debt amounted to FF 233 billion, or 1.8 times EdF's sales revenue. However, by the end of 1998 EdF had reduced this to FF 122 billion, about two thirds of sales revenue (FF 185 billion) and less than three times annual cash flow. Net interest charges had dropped to FF 7.7 billion (4.16% of sales) by 1998.

The cost of nuclear-generated electricity fell by 7% from 1998 to 2001 and is now about EUR 3 cents/kWh, which is very competitive in Europe.

From being a net electricity importer through most of the 1970s, France now has steadily growing net exports of electricity, and is the world's largest net electricity exporter, with electricity being France's fourth largest export. (Next door is Italy, without any operating nuclear power plants. It is Europe's largest importer of electricity, most coming ultimately from France.) The UK has also become a major customer for French electricity.

Reactor engineering

The first eight power reactors were gas-cooled, as championed by the Atomic Energy Authority (CEA), but EdF then chose pressurised water reactor (PWR) types, supported by new enrichment capacity.

Apart from one experimental fast breeder reactor, all French units are now PWRs of three standard types designed by Framatome - now Areva NP (the first two derived from US Westinghouse types): 900 MWe (34), 1300 MWe (20) and 1450 MWe N4 type (4). This is a higher degree of standardisation than anywhere else in the world.

The 900 MWe reactors all had their lifetimes extended by ten years in 2002, after their second 10-yearly review. Most started up late 1970s to early 1980s, and they are reviewed together in a process that takes four months at each unit. A review of the 1300 MWe class followed.

In the light of operating experience, EdF uprated its four Chooz and Civaux N4 reactors fom 1455 to 1500 MWe each in 2003.

France has exported its PWR reactor technology to Belgium, South Africa, South Korea and China. There are two 900 MWe French reactors operating at Koeberg, near Capetown in South Africa, two at Ulchin in South Korea and four at Daya Bay and Lingao in China, near Hong Kong.

Framatome in conjunction with Siemens in Germany then developed the European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR), based on the French N4 and the German Konvoi types, to meet the European Utility Requirements and also the US EPRI Utility Requirements. This was confirmed in 1995 as the new standard design for France and it received French design approval in 2004.

In mid 2004 the board of EdF decided in principle to build the first demonstration unit of an expected series of 1630 MWe Framatome ANP EPRs, and this decision was confirmed in May 2006, after public debate. The overnight capital cost is expected to be EUR 3.3 billion, and power from it EUR 4.6 c/kWh - about the same as from new combined cycle gas turbine at current gas prices and with no carbon emission charge. Series production costs are projected at about 20% less. EDF then submitted a construction licence application. Site works at Flamanville on the Normandy coast should be complete and the first concrete poured about the end of 2007, with construction taking 57 months and completion expected in 2012. EdF is aiming to firm up an industrial partnership with other European utilities or power users for its construction. (Finland is also building an EPR unit at Olkiluoto.)

In August 2005 EdF announced that it plans to replace its 58 present reactors with EPR nuclear reactors from 2020, at the rate of about one 1600 MWe unit per year. It would require 40 of these to reach present capacity. This will be confirmed about 2015 on the basis of experience with the initial EPR unit at Flamanville - use of other designs such as Westinghouse's AP1000 or GE's ASBWR is possible. EdF's development strategy selected the nuclear replacement option on the basis of nuclear's "economic performance, for the stability of its costs and out of respect for environmental constraints."

French nuclear power reactors

Reactor Name MWe net, each start

Belleville 1 & 2 1310 6/88, 1/89

Blayais 1-4 910 12/81-10/83

Bugey 2-3, 4-5 910, 880 3/79-1/80

Cattenom 1-4 1300 4/87-1/92

Chinon B 1-4 905 2/84-4/88

Chooz B 1-2 1500 5/00, 9/00

Civaux 1-2 1495 3/00, 9/00

Cruas 1-4 915 4/84-4/85

Dampierre 1-4 890 9/80-11/81

Fessenheim 1-2 880 12/77, 3/78

Flamanville 1-2 1330 12/86, 3/87

Golfech 1-2 1310 2/91, 3/94

Gravelines B 1-4 910 11/80-10/81

Gravelines C 5-6 910 1/85, 10/85

Nogent s/Seine 1-2 1310 2/88, 5/89

Paluel 1-4 1330 12/85-6/86

Penly 1-2 1330 12/90, 1192

Saint-Alban 1-2 1335 5/86, 3/87

Saint-Laurent B 1-2 915 8/83

Tricastin 1-4 915 12/80-11/81

Phenix 233 7/74

Total (59) 63,363

There have been two significant fast breeder reactors in France. Near Marcoule is the 233 MWe Phenix reactor, which started operation in 1974. It was shut down for modification 1998-2003 and is expected to run for a further few years. A second unit was Super-Phenix of 1200 MWe, which started up in 1996 but was closed down for political reasons at the end of 1998 and is now being decommissioned. The operation of Phenix is fundamental to France's research on waste disposal, particularly transmutation of actinides.

In 2004 the US energy secretary signed an agreement with the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) to gain access to the Phenix experimental fast neutron reactor for research on nuclear fuels. The US Department of Energy acknowledged that this fast neutron "capability no longer exists in the USA". The US research with Phenix will irradiate fuel loaded with various actinides under constant conditions to help identify what kind of fuel might be best for possible future waste transmutation systems.

In mid 2006 the CEA signed a four-year EUR 3.8 billion R&D contract with the government, including development of two types of fast neutron reactors: an improved version of the sodium-cooled type which already has 45 reactor-years operational experience in France, and an innovative gas-cooled type. Both would have fuel recycling, and by 2009 a decision will be taken on whether this should be of uranium and plutonium only, or also minor actinides as envisaged in the USA. CEA will also support industry in developing a very high temperature reactor for hydrogen production.

Fuel Cycle

France uses some 12,400 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate (10,500 tonnes of U) per year for its electricity generation. Much of this comes from Cogema in Canada (4500 tU/yr) and Niger (3200 tU/yr) together with other imports, principally from Australia, Kazakhstan and Russia, mostly under long-term contracts.

Beyond this, it is self-sufficient and has conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication, reprocessing and MOX fuel fabrication plants operational, together with a waste management programme.

Most fuel cycle activities are carried out by the government corporation Cogema (Compagnie generale des matieres nucleaires), a subsidiary of Areva.

Uranium concentrates are converted to hexafluoride at the 14,000 t/yr Comurhex Pierrelatte plant in the Rhone Valley.

Enrichment then takes place at the 1978 Eurodif plant at Tricastin nearby, with 10.8 million SWU capacity (enough to supply some 81,000 MWe of generating capacity - about one third more than France's total).

In 2003 Areva agreed to buy a 50% stake in Urenco's Enrichment Technology Company (ETC), which comprises all its centrifuge R&D, design and manufacturing activities. The deal will enable Areva to use Urenco/ETC technology to replace its 10.8 million SWU/yr Eurodif gas diffusion enrichment plant at Tricastin.

The final agreement after approval by the four governments involved was signed in mid 2006, and first stages of the new EUR 3 billion plant are expected to begin operating in 2009. When fully operational in 2017 it will free up some 3000 MWe of Tricastin nuclear power plant's capacity for the French grid - over 20 billion kWh/yr (@ 4 c/kWh this is EUR 800 million/yr). The new enrichment plant investment is equivalent to buying new power capacity @ EUR 1000/kW.

Fuel fabrication is at several plants in France and Belgium.

Spent fuel from the reactors is sent to Cogema's 1600 t/yr La Hague plant in Normandy for reprocessing. This extracts the plutonium and uranium, leaving high-level wastes which are vitrified and stored there for later disposal. The plutonium is shipped to the 120 t/yr Melox plant at Marcoule for prompt fabrication into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, which can be used in about 30 reactors in Europe.

Reprocessing of 1150 tonnes of EdF used fuel per year (about 15 years after discharge) produces 8.5 tonnes of plutonium (immediately recycled as MOX and 815 tonnes of reprocessed uranium (RepU). Of this about 650 tonnes is converted into stable oxide form for storage. Some of the RepU has been re-enriched at Pierrelatte and EdF has demonstrated its use of in 900 MWe power plants. However it is currently uneconomic due to conversion costing three times as much as that for fresh uranium, and enrichment needing to be separate because of U-232 and U-236 impurities (the former gives rise to gamma radiation, the latter means higher enrichment is required). However, EdF is reported to be planning increased use of RepU.

All these fuel cycle facilities are operated commercially, with international customers. Together they comprise a significant export industry and France¹s major export to Japan.

In August 2004 Areva announced a EUR 4 billion contract to treat 5250 tonnes of EdF's spent uranium fuel at La Hague. The deal covers also the provision of 100 tonnes of mixed oxide (MOX) fuel per year to EdF from the separated plutonium for seven years, and the vitrification and packaging of the separated high-level wastes.

"Through this contract, EdF and Areva reaffirm their shared analysis of long-term prospects for the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle and their willingness to share and maintain a coherent vision of how existing industrial infrastructures should be used." Even allowing for EdF still needing to pay for disposal of the separated high-level wastes, the cost appears to be comparable with that for direct disposal of spent fuel and means that EdF gets about 30% more energy from the original uranium than otherwise.

Areva is developing two types on next-generation reprocessing plants: one for France and the other for export, with USA particularly in mind. The export plant would be ready by 2020, using the aqueous COEX process, similar to today's Purex but co-precipitating some uranium with the plutonium ready for use in a mixed-oxide fuel plant. The domestic design would use CEA's Ganex process which goes further than Coex in separating actinides and some lanthanides from short-lived fission products. It is chiefly designed to reduce the radiotoxicity and heat output of final wastes, and is envisaged as replacing the present La Hague plant about 2040.

Wastes

The national policy is to reprocess spent fuel so as to recover uranium and plutonium for re-use and to reduce the volume of high-level wastes for disposal. Waste disposal is being pursued under France's 1991 Waste Management Act which sets the direction of research which is mainly undertaken at the Bure underground rock laboratory in eastern France, situated in clays. Another laboratory is researching granites.

ANDRA, the waste management agency set up under the 1991 Act, expects to report to government so that parliament can decide in 2006 on the precise course of action. In line with the 1991 law, research is also being undertaken on partitioning and transmutation, and long-term surface storage of wastes following conditioning. Wastes disposed of are to be retrievable.

After strong support in the National Assembly and Senate the Nuclear Materials and Waste Management Program Act s set to become law and apply for 15 years. This formally declares deep geological disposal as the reference solution for high-level and long-lived radioactive wastes, and sets 2015 as the target date for licensing a repository and 2025 for opening it. The bill also affirms the principle of reprocessing used fuel and using recycled plutonium in mixed oxide (MOX) fuel "in order to reduce the quantity and toxicity" of final wastes, and calls for construction of a prototype fourth-generation reactor by 2020 to test transmutation of long-lived actinides. The cost of the repository is expected to be around EUR 15 billion: 40% construction, 40% operation for 100 years, and 20% ancillary (taxes and insurance). The bill will leave funds for waste management and decommissioning segregated but with the producers rather than in an external fund.

The bill is largely in line with recommendations to government from the National Scientific Assessment Committee following 15 years of research. Their report identified the clay formation at Bure as the best site, but was sceptical of partitioning and transmutation for high-level wastes, and said that used MOX fuel should be stored indefinitely as a plutonium resource for future fast neutron reactors, rather than being recycled now or treated as waste.

Earlier, an international review team reported very positively on the plan by Andra, the French radioactive waste agency, for a deep geological repository complex in clay at Bure.

EdF sets aside EUR 0.14 cents/kWh of nuclear electricity for waste management costs, and said that the 2004 Areva contract was economically justified even in the new competitive environment of EU electricity supply. Total provisions at end of 2004 amounted to EUR 13.4 billion, EUR 9.6 billion for reprocessing (including decommissioning of facilities) and EUR 3.8 billion for disposal of high-level and long-lived wastes.

Decommissioning

Eleven experimental and power reactors are being decommissioned in France, eight of them first-generation gas-cooled, graphite-moderated types, six being very similar to the UK Magnox type. There are well-developed plans for dismantling these (which have been shut down since 1990 or before). However, progress awaits the availability of sites for disposing of the intermediate-level wastes and the alpha-contaminated graphite from the early reactors.

The other three include the 1200 MWe Super Phenix fast reactor, the 1966 prototype 305 MWe PWR at Chooz, and an experimental GCHWR at Brennilis, which ran 1967-85. A licence was issued for dismantling this in 2006.

Organisation and financing of final decommissioning of the UP1 reprocessing plant at Marcoule was settled in 2004, with the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) taking it over. The total cost is expected to be some EUR 5.6 billion. The plant was closed in 1997 after 39 years of operation, primarily for military purposes but also taking the spent fuel from EdF's early gas-cooled power reactors. It was operated under a partnership - Codem, with 45% share by each of CEA and EdF and 10% share by Cogema. EdF and Areva (for Cogema) will now pay CEA EUR 1.5 billion and be clear of further liability.

EdF puts aside EUR 0.14 cents/kWh for decommissioning and at the end of 2004 it carried provisions of EUR 9.9 billion for this. By 2010 it will have fully funded the eventual decommissioning of its nuclear power plants (from 2035). Early in 2006 it held EUR 25 billion segregated for this purpose, and is on track for EUR 35 billion in 2010. Areva has dedicated assets already provided at the level of its future liabilities.

Regulation & Safety

The Nuclear Safety Authority (Autorite de Surete Nucleaire - ASN) is the regulatory authority responsible for nuclear safety and radiological protection. It reports to the Minister of Environment Industry & Health.

The General Directorate for Nuclear Safety and Radiological Protection (DGSNR) was set up in 2002 by merging the Directorate for Nuclear Installation Safety (DSIN) with the Office for Protection against Ionising Radiation (OPRI) to integrate the regulatory functions and to "draft and implement government policy."

Research is undertaken by the ISRN - the Institute for Radiological Protection & Nuclear Safety, also set up in 2002 from two older bodies. ISRN is the main technical support body for ASN and also advises DGSNR.

The Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique - CEA) was set up in 1945 and is the public R&D corporation responsible for all aspects of nuclear R&D.

Non-proliferation All uranium supplied to France is covered by both IAEA safeguards and bilateral safeguards which ensure that it cannot be used for weapons. Euratom safeguards also apply in France and cover all civil nuclear facilities and materials.

France is a nuclear weapons state, party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which it ratified in 1992 (having signed earlier) and under which a safeguards agreement has been in place since 1981. IAEA safeguards are applied to most reactors, covering all safeguarded uranium supplied to France.

It undertook nuclear weapons tests 1960-96 and ceased production of weapons-grade fissile materials in 1996. Since then it has ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Main Sources

EdF, Nov 1996, Review of the French Nuclear Power Programme, EdF web site

IAEA 2003, Country nuclear power profiles.

WNA 2001, Global Nuclear Fuel Market.

Nuclear Review, July 2001.

NuclearFuel & Nucleonics Week, August 2005

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