France should build enriched reprocessed uranium plant, Senate committee report says

France should urgently decide to build a plant for enriching reprocessed uranium and relaunch research into fourth generation fast neutron reactors, a French Senate investigative committee recommended in a July 4 report.

Franck Montauge, committee chairman, said at a press conference that same day he expected the committee recommendations to form the basis for proposed laws that could be introduced in the fall.

The report warned that France could face a shortage of natural uranium if enough countries decide to triple their nuclear generation capacity by 2050 to meet COP 28 climate change targets.

Such domestic demand could increase global annual natural uranium demand from around 60,000 metric tons of uranium per year now to 185,000 mtU/yr in 2050, the committee said.

It said the availability of enough U3O8 to fuel France's proposed EPR2 reactors for 80 years could be impacted.

And strategic decisions by some primary producing countries closely tied to Russia and China could limit U3O8 supplies to the West, the Senate report warned.

"After oil and natural gas, uranium has every chance of becoming a means of leverage in geostrategic confrontations," it said.

The first 1,650-MW EPR2 is expected to be completed and operational between 2035 and 2037, with a further 13 reactors possibly following by 2050 under current government proposals.

Use of enriched reprocessed uranium

France currently reprocesses some of its spent fuel to produce mixed plutonium- and uranium-oxide fuel, or MOX, used in 22 of EDF's 32 900-MW series reactors.

EDF this year also restarted the use of enriched reprocessed uranium fuel at its 900-MW series Cruas-2 reactor, with the target of using the fuel at all four Cruas plant reactors starting in 2026.

The company's objective is to use enriched reprocessed uranium at some of its 1,300-MW series reactors starting in 2027, then increase that use so that over 30% of French reactors deploy the fuel in the 2030s, according to the report.

It said, "An increasing use of enriched reprocessed uranium in conditions allowing national sovereignty requires the creation of a new [enrichment] facility, which means a clear political choice to arrive at a result within seven to 10 years."

A decision on creating a facility in France or Western Europe to enrich reprocessed uranium could be discussed during an October meeting of President Emmanuel Macron and key ministers, the report said.

A subsidiary of Russian state-owned nuclear company Rosatom has enriched EDF's reprocessed uranium under a 2018 contract.

No consensus on multiple reprocessing

While backing construction of a non-Russian facility for enrichment of reprocessed uranium, the investigative committee did not support ongoing research by French fuel cycle company Orano, as well as EDF and French state research body CEA, into multiple reprocessing of spent fuel or use of MOX2 fuel.

Multiple reprocessing means that the MOX fuel is reprocessed several times instead of only once, as is currently practiced. The MOX2 being researched would contain enriched uranium to compensate for the degradation of the fissile plutonium.

The French ministerial department tasked with drawing up long term energy and climate strategy told the committee earlier this year that multiple reprocessing could be confirmed by 2026, MOX2 fuel pellets loaded in a reactor for testing by 2030, and "potential industrial deployment of the fuel by 2050."

The committee report cautioned that "there are strong differences of opinion on the pertinence of multiple reprocessing."

The committee itself concluded that allocating significant research funding and human resources for multiple reprocessing risks weakening research into fourth generation fast breeder neutron reactors, which it described as the clear strategic path for France's future energy sovereignty.

A decision to restart research into fast neutron reactors needs to be urgently taken if such units can be constructed and operational around 2050 and take priority in French plans over the proposed EPR2 construction program, the report said.

"That [2050] target is demanding but possible," it added.

France had been a pioneer worldwide in fast neutron reactor research but lost its lead following the 2018 decision to stop the Astrid program to develop a 600-MW salt cooled prototype reactor to prove the industrial potential of the technology.

Fast neutron reactors could potentially deploy France's inventories of used MOX, plutonium and 300,000 mtU of depleted uranium.