Newsletter N° 4/5 (Germany)
Reprocessing at the French La Hague Plant
(in metric tons of heavy metal as of 1 march 1998)
|
Reprocessed
in UP2 |
Reprocessed in UP3 |
Total reprocessed
by country |
|
| France |
5,019
|
0
|
5,019
|
| Germany |
1,643
|
1,909
|
3,552
|
| Japan |
151
|
2,223
|
2,374
|
| Switzerland |
132
|
229
|
361
|
| Netherlands |
85
|
141
|
226
|
| Belgium |
139
|
453
|
592
|
| Total |
7,169
|
4,955
|
12,124
|
The La Hague reprocessing plants operate very successfully not only for France but especially for foreign clients. Of the 12,124 t of cumulated throughtput of light water reactor fuel as of 1 March 1998, close to 60% or 7,105 t were of foreign origin, of which exactly half or 3,552 t were discharged from German reactors. At its current rate, without any major technical incident or accident, the foreign "base load" contracts of 7,000 t could be fulfilled by the end of the year 2000 (the foreign UP2 contracts having already been executed). It would take COGEMA until the end of 2001 to process all of the 8,156 t under contract. The French utility EDF has not signed any follow-up contract yet. The only substantial quantity (roughly 2,000 t) under - very flexible - contract after the turn of the century has been signed up for by the German utilities. No wonder COGEMA follows election results in Germany closely.
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