La Hague reprocessing plants

Fig. 8. Variation with location of the mean levels of "Tc in samples of Fucus serrantus bioindicators along the French coast of the English Channel. The discharge outlet at the La Hague reprocessing plant is shown by an arrow. (Reprinted with permission from Ref. 43. Copyright (1987) Elsevier Science Ltd)...

Drain, F., Moulin, J.P., Gillet, B. 2000. Advanced solvent management in the La Hague reprocessing plants. AIChE Spring Meeting, March 5-9, Atlanta, GA. 

Radionuclides discharged from the Cap de la Hague reprocessing plant flow north-east through the English Channel and into the North Sea,... 

The successful operating record and experience gained with AVM allowed the start-up of a commercial-scale, high level waste vitrification plant in France. These similar facilities, R7 and T7, are on line at the La Hague reprocessing plant. R7 was commissioned in 1989 and T7 in 1992. 

VII.39] ZACHAR, M., PRETESACQUE, R, Bumup credit in spent fuel transport to COGEMA La Hague reprocessing plant , Int. J. Radioact. Mater. Trans. 5 2-4 (1994) 273-278. 

Table 1 Examples of waste conditioning in La Hague reprocessing plant.

Two systems based on crown-calixarenes, able to be used in liquid-liquid extraction process were chosen. Both systems use a modifier in the organic phase to avoid the occurrence of a third phase in the TPH (diluent used at the reprocessing plant of la Hague for the PUREX process) and ensure a sufficient cesium extraction. 

AVH [Atelier de Vitrification de la Hague] A process for immobilizing nuclear waste, operated at La Hague, France, based on the earlier AVM process. Used also in the THORP nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield, UK. 

Plants in the UK, USSR and France are now reprocessing irradiated UO2/PUO2 fuels and LMFBR fuel reprocessing has been the subject of international conferences. " The plant at Cap la Hague, France, employs a 30% TBP solution and no U/Pu separation is undertaken, so that a mixed U/Pu product is obtained. Fluoride is added to the process feed to complex zirconium and suppress its extraction." The Dounreay plant in the UK employs a 20% TBP/OK solution and uses sulfuric acid to effect the U/Pu separation. TBP poorly extracts Pu or U from sulfuric acid solutions, but in mixed HNO3/H2SO4 the equilibria shown in equations (206) and (207) must be considered. The equilibrium constants for these reactions, Kj, and K i, are given... 

Figure 10.3 Cogema reprocessing plant at La Hague, France. (With permission of Cogema.)... 

Releases in 1978 only 1.8 GW produced from fuel reprocessed. Average for 3 plants normalized to 1985-1989 La Hague, France, Sellafield, UK, and Toka-Mura, lapan. (From UNSCEAR 1993.)... 

This was formalized in the Specifications of Vitrified Residues produced from reprocessing at UP2/UP3 La Hague plants. The specifications include Guaranteed Parameters, i.e., those identified as key parameters in the process to ensure the glass canister s quality (Table 1). 

These findings are compared with extraction units already in operation in spent nuclear reprocessing plants. A summary of three solvent extraction contactors that are currently employed in recycling plants with throughput of 5 tonnes per year (e.g. THORP, SeUafield, UK UP3, Cap La Hague, France and the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, RRP, Rokkasho Mura, Japan) as found in literature (Nash and Lumetta 2011) is shown in Table 6.3. 

AREVA La Hague plant in France has two production lines with a production level equivalent to 450 tWh of electricity per year, which produce 1700 tonnes of spent fuel per year. In 2011, the plant processed 1045 toimes of spent fuel. Same amounts of spent fuel (1734 tonnes of spent fuel per year) are reprocessed in SeUafield in the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant. 

The actual situation is that the exploration of the repository has been finished. Similar to the situation in the United States, no decision has been made to start depositing waste canisters. Wastes returning from the French reprocessing factory in Cap de La Hague or from the British plant in Sellafield are stored above ground in an interim storage unit. 

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