TRANSPORTATION

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Once they have been used in the reactors, fuel assemblies, containing approximately 1% plutonium, are transported towards the COGEMA plant in La Hague, almost exclusively by train.

Plutonium is extracted from the irradiated fuel, and kept in storage containers - in the form of PuO2 oxide powder - in the BST1 and BSI installations in La Hague. A fraction of this plutonium is then transported towards the MOX fabrication plants and added to uranium oxide.

In these MOX fabrication plants, the mixed oxide is transformed into ceramic pellets, which are incorporated into tubes to make fuel rods. These rods are then assembled into bundles called fuel assemblies.

The Cadarache plant where MOX rods are produced is not equipped for all types of assembly production.

Therefore, for certain production types, it can prove necessary to transport the rods to the equipped plants for assembly. Once assembled, the MOX assemblies are transported to the nuclear power plants able to use this type of fuel.

MOX assembly production also generates a large quantity of fabrication scraps and waste.

When not reintroduced into the process, these scraps and waste materials are transported to the La Hague plant and to storage centres.

In summary, the following plutonium-based materials are transported during the MOX fabrication cycle :

- Assemblies of irradiated fuel towards the La Hague plant;

- PuO2 powder from the reprocessing plant to the MOX plants;

- MOX rods between fabrication and assembly plants;

- MOX assemblies between fabrication or assembly plants and nuclear power plants;

- Contaminated fabrication scraps and waste from the fabrication plants to the La Hague plant or to the storage centres.