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Eguzon Dam in Central France is among the main stations that produce substantial percentage of the total output. The dam gets its waters from the Creuse River, and it is about 61 meters high. As of , France was the 8th largest wind power nation in the world producing a total of The vast land area in France and the nature of the landscape has given France a huge potential of maximizing on wind energy production which goes a long way in reducing the strain on nuclear and hydroelectric energies.
Future projection estimates indicate that France will be able to produce 26, MW by Bauxite was first discovered in France in in the Brignoles region in the Foix mining district.
The strange thing about this particular bauxite mine is that not much has happened since the discovery, though the area has been undergoing routine maintenance with no large-scale extraction of the bauxite itself leaving the deposit mostly untouched. This has been attributed to the non-viability of a massive mining operation as those involved consider the bauxite deposit to be too small to justify any significant extraction undertaking. Lorraine has been the principal source of iron ore in France where large deposits of the precious natural resource alongside coal were responsible for the rapid population growth during the industrial revolution.
For a while, Lorraine was home to steel industries which depended on the iron ore, as the deposits depleted over time and when competition from other nation became stiff most of these industries closed down. The government is currently trying to revive Lorraine back to its former glory with mixed results.
The aim of this company is to improve the preparation and management of projects, as well as the export offering of the French nuclear industry.
As well as plans to sell most of Areva NP to EDF , in June Areva announced corporate restructuring through the creation of a new company 'NewCo' focused on the nuclear fuel cycle apart from fuel fabrication.
The entity, originally named New Areva Holding Co. This announcement marked the end of the restructuring process. The rest of Orano's capital is held by the French state — Areva TA, the propulsion and research reactor unit, as well as the renewables businesses, was retained by Areva SA. In March its Normally base-load generating plants, with high capital cost and low operating cost, are run continuously, since this is the most economic mode.
But also it is technically the simplest way, since nuclear and coal-fired plants cannot readily alter power output, compared with gas or hydro plants. The high reliance on nuclear power in France thus poses some technical challenges, since the reactors collectively need to be used in load-following mode.
Since electricity cannot be stored, generation output must be exactly equal to consumption at all times. Any change in demand or generation of electricity at a given point on the transmission network has an instant impact on the entire system.
RTE , a subsidiary of EdF, is responsible for operating, maintaining and developing the French electricity transmission network. France has the biggest grid network in Europe, made up of some , km of high and extra high voltage lines, and 44 cross-border lines, including a DC link to UK.
Electricity is transmitted regionally at and kilovolts. Frequency and voltage are controlled from the national control centre, but dispatching of capacity is done regionally. Due to its central geographical position, RTE is a crucial entity in the European electricity market and a critical operator in maintaining its reliability. All France's nuclear capacity is from PWR units. There are two ways of varying the power output from a PWR: control rods, and boron addition to the primary cooling water.
Using normal control rods to reduce power means that there is a portion of the core where neutrons are being absorbed rather than creating fission, and if this is maintained it creates an imbalance in the fuel, with the lower part of the fuel assemblies being more reactive that the upper parts. Adding boron to the water diminishes the reactivity uniformly, but to reverse the effect the water has to be treated to remove the boron, which is slow and costly, and it creates a radioactive waste.
So to minimise these impacts since the s EdF has used in each PWR reactor some less absorptive 'grey' control rods which weigh less from a neutronic point of view than ordinary control rods and they allow sustained variation in power output. This means that RTE can depend on flexible load following from the nuclear fleet to contribute to regulation in these three respects:. PWR plants are very flexible at the beginning of their cycle, with fresh fuel and high reserve reactivity.
So at the very end of the cycle, they are run at steady power output and do not regulate or load-follow until the next refueling outage. RTE has continuous oversight of all French plants and determines which plants adjust output in relation to the three considerations above, and by how much.
RTE's real-time picture of the whole French system operating in response to load and against predicted demand shows the total of all inputs. This includes the hydro contribution at peak times, but it is apparent that in a coordinated system the nuclear fleet is capable of a degree of load following, even though the capability of individual units to follow load may be limited.
Plants being built today, e. France uses some 12, tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate 10, tonnes of U per year for its electricity generation.
Areva perceives the front end of the French fuel cycle as strategic, and invests accordingly. Beyond this, it is self-sufficient and has conversion, enrichment, uranium fuel fabrication and MOX fuel fabrication plants operational together with reprocessing and a waste management program. Most fuel cycle activities are carried out by Areva. In May Areva NC announced plans for a new conversion project — Comurhex II — expanding and modernising the facilities at Malvesi and Pierrelatte near Tricastin to strengthen its global position in the front end of the fuel cycle.
In January EdF awarded a long-term conversion contract to Areva. At the start of Comurhex I had an inventory of three years' worth of sales, from which customers would be supplied between the closure of Comhurhex I and the opening of Comurhex II. The plant was inaugurated in September and entered commercial operation in December with a capacity of tonnes per year.
Construction is due to be completed in , at which point the facility will reach its full capacity of 15, tonnes per year. Orano stated in September that EDF is committed to buy about one-third of the total output, with the balance mainly sold under long-term contracts to about 70 utilities in the USA, China, South Korea and several European countries. Areva has undertaken deconversion of enrichment tails at Pierrelatte since the s.
It ran at about half capacity using about MWe until mid and then closed down, as replacement capacity at Georges Besse II reached 1. The plant delivered more than million SWU, or 35, t of enriched product in 33 years. Areva owns The final agreement after approval by the four governments involved was signed in mid The new Georges Besse II enrichment plant at Tricastin was officially opened in December and commenced commercial operation in April The south plant started construction in , commenced operation in , and reached full capacity of 4.
Construction of the north plant began in with first production in March , and was fully operational at the end of with 3. Most production from GBII was contracted as of The 4. It runs over 17 years to , corresponding with the amortisation of the new plant.
About tonnes of depleted uranium tails is produced annually, most of which is stored for use in Generation IV fast reactors. Only tonnes per year is used in MOX. By this resources is expected to total some , tonnes of DU. Enrichment of depleted uranium tails has been undertaken in Russia, at Novouralsk and Zelenogorsk. Some 33, tonnes of French DU from Areva and EdF has been sent to Russia in shipments over , and about t of enriched 'natural' uranium about 0.
The contracts for this work end in , and the last shipment was in July with the returned material to be shipped by year end. Tails from re-enrichment remain in Russia as the property of the enrichers. Fuel fabrication is at several Framatome plants in France and Belgium.
Significant upgrading of these plants forms part of Framatome's strategy for strengthening its front end facilities. MOX fuel fabrication and use of reprocessed uranium is described below. The JV will develop, fabricate and commercialize fuel assemblies based on metallic fuel technology.
Commercial sales of the fuel are expected by France chose the closed fuel cycle at the very beginning of its nuclear program, involving reprocessing used fuel so as to recover uranium and plutonium for re-use and to reduce the volume of high-level wastes for disposal.
Overall the closed fuel cycle cost is assessed as comparable with that for direct disposal of used fuel, and preserves a resource which may become more valuable in the future. Back end services are carried out by Areva. Used fuel storage in pools at reactor sites is relatively brief. Total in storage was 14, tonnes. Used fuel from the French reactors and from other countries is sent to Areva's La Hague plant in Normandy for reprocessing.
This has the capacity to reprocess up to tonnes per year of used fuel in the UP2 and UP3 facilities, and had reprocessed 28, tonnes to the end of The treatment extracts Typical input today is 3. The rest is preserved for later reprocessing to provide the plutonium required for the start-up of Generation IV reactors. Reprocessing is undertaken a few years after discharge, following some cooling. Some At the end of , there were 80 tonnes of civilian plutonium in storage in France, 60 t of it at La Hague.
Of the total, 56 t belonged to French entities, and 27 t to EdF. These discharges earlier amounted to about tonnes per year, but rose to tonnes from Used MOX fuel is not reprocessed at present. EdF used it in the Cruas MWe power reactors from the mids to The main RepU inventory — 24, tonnes at four sites at the end of but only 16, tonnes at the end of — constitutes a strategic resource, and EdF intends to increase its utilization significantly.
The enrichment tails remain at Seversk, as the property of the enricher. It is the reason why the cost of these operations may be higher than for natural uranium. However, taking into account the credit from recycled materials natural uranium savings , commercial grade RepU fuel is competitive and its cost is more predictable than that of fresh uranium fuel, due to uncertainty about future uranium concentrate prices.
In May Framatome signed a contract to design, fabricate and supply fuel assemblies using enriched reprocessed uranium to EDF between and In Europe 35 reactors have been loaded with MOX fuel. Contracts for MOX fuel supply were signed in with Japanese utilities. Table of Contents. Back To Top. Coal, iron ore, bauxite, zinc, uranium, antimony, arsenic, potash, feldspar, fluorspar, gypsum, timber, fish, gold.
Flooding, avalanches, midwinter windstorms, drought, forest fires in the south near the Mediterranean.
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