Cogéma, a subsidiary of the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA) set up in 1976, inherited technologies and facilities developed for the weapons program. Cogéma is the operator of the French reprocessing program, with contracts from both the military and the French electric utility, Electricité de France (EDF). Cogéma operates two large scale reprocessing plants at La Hague, UP2 and UP3, which together produced roughly 80% of all separated plutonium in the world in 1995. The nominal annual capacity of each is 800 metric tons of heavy metal, equivalent to an annual production of separated plutonium of about 8,000 kg. UP2 was started up in 1966, originally to reprocess Magnox fuel. Its "nominal" capacity varied and was finally put at 400 tons per year. From 1976 onwards a new headend enabled the plant to reprocess oxide fuels of light water reactors (LWRs). Since 1994, after significant modification and expansion, the plant operates under the name UP2-800 to indicate its new nominal annual capacity. UP3 came on line in 1990.

The French plutonium industry's development over the past 20 years has depended on important contracts from foreign clients. More than half of the spent LWR fuel processed at La Hague has been of foreign origin. UP2 has reprocessed foreign fuel up to year 1990 and has since been entirely devoted to French fuel (with the exception of a batch of German MOX fuel processed for demonstration purposes). UP3, financed by foreign clients, is due to reprocess only foreign fuel until around year 2000. In 1977 and 1978, 30 foreign customers in seven countries funded the construction of UP3 and in return received contracts for UP3's planned reprocessing capacity during the first ten years of its operation. Today, Cogéma provides nuclear fuel services to electric utilities from Germany, Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. SGN, an engineering subsidiary of Cogéma, is providing the know-how for the construction of the Rokkasho-mura reprocessing plant in Japan, based on the design of the plants at La Hague.

Despite its long-declared policy to reprocess all spent fuel unloaded from reactors, France is unable to do so. The present capacity of the reprocessing plants at La Hague is completely committed to EDF and foreign clients and Cogéma can now reprocess 850 metric tons out of some 1200 metric tons of spent fuel unloaded annually from French reactors. The spent fuel which is not reprocessed is put into storage. In 1996 it became clear for the first time that EDF is not intending anymore to achieve the all-reprocessing goal. A fierce conflict is now taking place back stage within the nuclear establishment over the definition of a future spent fuel management strategy in France. In 1992 already EDF decided - without any publicity - "not to take into account anymore, in deduction of the provision for reprocessing, of the value of plutonium which will come out of reprocessing, given the uncertainties of its future use".²

Further, EDF is having second thoughts about the use of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel due to its high cost relative to uranium fuel. Today sixteen reactors are licensed for MOX fuel use (30% of the core), of which nine were loaded with MOX by the end of 1996. EDF will have to expand its MOX program and ask for a MOX license for an additional 12 reactors. According to information obtained by WISE-Paris, the Minister of Industry has recently ordered EDF to increase the number of reactors to be "moxed" to ten from next year on. France already has very large stockpiles of plutonium, which will increase over the coming years since MOX throughputs are limited and plutonium production is not decreasing accordingly. Official figures for stockpiles of unirradiated plutonium in France in various forms (separated, fresh MOX, etc.) amounted to 55,300 kg as of December 1995 of which 25,700 kg belonged to foreign countries.³ Thus, France is aggravating both problems: spent fuel and separated plutonium stocks.

1. UP stands for "usine de plutonium" (plutonium factory).
   
2. EDF, "Annual Report 1994", Paris, 1995.
   
3. Ministère de l'Industrie, "L'énergie nucléaire en 110 questions", Ed. Le Cherche Midi, Octobre 1996