France and Nuclear Energy
To say that France is dependent on nuclear energy would be an understatement. Over 35% of France’s total energy requirement and over 78% of French electricity demands are met by nuclear energy. In 1999, France generated 375 billion kWh of electricity from its fifty-eight pressurized water reactors currently in operation. The electrical generation capacity of these plants is 65,702 MWe. France also operates one fast reactor, which generates 250 MWe of energy1. Because of their large operation capacity, the French also export energy, mainly to the rest of Europe, roughly 72.1 TWh per year. This large amount of energy generation allows France to be more energy self-sufficient than most European countries. In fact, France is over 50% able to meet its own energy needs, an incredibly large percentage for a modernized, western country. In comparison, Italy is only 18% energy self-sufficient. This was one of the goals of the French Nuclear program, to decrease French dependence on foreign energy sources2.
The French national energy company, Electricite¢ de France or the EDF, runs France’s nuclear power plants. The EDF was created in 1946 to alleviate the energy shortage that occurred just after World War II. In the 1950s the EDF provided France with the energy to modernize itself into an industrial power. However like most energy corporations, the EDF relied heavily on hydrocarbon generation up until the first oil crisis occurred. Then it was decided that the EDF should pursue nuclear energy to reduce French dependence on foreign energy3.
The first French commercial nuclear power plant had already been commissioned by 1963. Since then, France has built an impressive and yet relatively young group of reactors. The average age of a French reactor is only thirteen years. With a nuclear power plant life expectancy of forty years, this means French nuclear capabilities have a definite future ahead of them. This also does not take into consideration the possibility of plant life extensions or other means of adding to the viability of a nuclear plant. In addition to the current number of nuclear power plants, France also has four more plants under construction and due to be added to the generation grid in the year 2001. The oldest active French nuclear power plants went critical in 1977 and 1978. The minimum expected, forty-year lifespan of these plants indicates their shut down in the years 2017 and 2018. Currently, France has six new power plants planned. These plants are scheduled to begin their commercial operation in 2014, conservatively estimated to pick up the load from the plants shutting down at this time4. This shows that not only is France currently relying on nuclear energy, but it also plans to have nuclear energy be its primary energy source far into the future.
In order for nuclear power plants to operate, they must have a fuel source. The French company COGEMA meets France’s nuclear power plant fuel needs. COGEMA was founded after the EDF and at the beginning of France’s nuclear power era. COGEMA is now an industrial group that is majority owned by the French government. In fact, the French Atomic Energy Commission owns 82% of the shares of COGEMA, with the other shares owned by an oil company and an engineering firm. In the fiscal year 1999, COGEMA had sales in excess of five billion US dollars, this coming mainly from the sale of uranium fuel for reactors. It services 25% of the world market for uranium enrichment and conversion, 50% of the world’s fuel reprocessing facilities and over 80% of the world’s MOX fuel fabrication. In the year 1998, COGEMA manufactured 6100t of uranium into fuel assemblies, which is 18% of the world production for that year. Over 40% of COGEMA’s annual production of uranium is exported from France5.
In its natural form, uranium is concentrated after mining as yellow cake, which is primarily uranium oxide (U3O8). For enrichment, it then must be converted into the form of uranium hexaflouride,UF6. From this state, it has to be enriched primarily by one of two methods, either gaseous diffusion or gaseous ultracentrigfugation. This takes the 0.71% U-235 content of natural uranium and increases it to the 3-5% range that is necessary in order to run light water reactors. After enrichment, the uranium must then be fabricated in UO2 pellets, which are then made into fuel assemblies6. It is the fuel assemblies which are loaded into nuclear power plants. COGEMA is involved with all the above processes. It owns substantial interests in uranium mining operation around the world. COGEMA operates two plants in France for the conversion of yellow cake to uranium hexaflouride. In addition, COGEMA owns the Georges Besses uranium enrichment plant in France, which has the capacity to enrich almost one-third of the world’s annual uranium supply. Finally, COGEMA and FRAMATOME (the French nuclear reactor design and construction company) jointly own several fabrication plants around the world. These FRAGEMA plants currently have 32% of the production capacity of the world’s PWRs7. Through COGEMA, France has the ability to produce the uranium needed to run its arsenal of nuclear power plants, as long as there is natural mined uranium available.
Since the beginning of the nuclear power era in France, the French have mined their uranium, almost to the point of exhaustion. Please see Figure #1 one on the subsequent page for a plot of average uranium produced per year in France. This plot was calculated using data from the various Redbooks produced over the years by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the IAEA. The plot shows the average uranium produced in France per year for the year groupings shown. Currently, over 70,000 metric tons of uranium has been excavated in France. This leaves the French with uranium reserves of around 200,000 metric tons. However, this uranium ore is of very poor quality and is not economically feasible right now to excavate. French nuclear power industrialists have thus turned to other sources around the world for uranium. One of the closest and easiest places for the French to obtain their uranium was their own African colonies. Of particular interest were Niger and Gabon, both of which have extensive uranium deposits8. COGEMA realized this and had bought extensive right to several mines in those countries. In Niger, COGEMA owns 57% of the SOMAIR mining operation and 34% of the COMINAK mining operation. In Gabon, COGEMA owns 68.4% of the COMUF mining operation. In addition, COGEMA own 100% of the Cluff mining operation in Canada, 71% of the Christensen Ranch mining operation in the United States, and 3.3% of the Ranger mining operation in Australia9. Moreover, COGEMA is involved with new production at five different mining operations in Canada and is the primary motivator in some recent studies of the feasibility of uranium mining in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Madagascar. Through all of these various sources, COGEMA is assuring France and its clients that it can obtain uranium and thereby supply fuel assemblies for nuclear power plants10. Because COGEMA is so widely diversified in its uranium acquisition, it has made France less dependent on a particular foreign source for its energy needs. COGEMA’s recent spread into other markets for uranium comes at an opportune time.
Originally, the COGEMA drive to obtain uranium focused mainly on the countries of France, Niger and Gabon. It is only recently that COGEMA has turned to other sources, such as Canada, the US and Australia, to obtain its uranium. This is mainly due to the fact that its uranium fountains have dried up in France and Gabon. The French natural uranium status has already been mentioned but the status of the mines in Gabon has not11. COGEMA owned the majority share in the COMUF mining operation in Gabon that mined the Mouana region. In the 40 years that the COMUF mining operation was in production, it mined over 26,650 metric tons of uranium. However, as of 1999 it ceased to produce uranium and was scheduled to be remediated, then decommissioned by the end of the year 2000. This will completely exhaust the COGEMA mining operations in the country of Gabon. In the country of Niger where COGEMA owns two mining operations, the SOMAIR and the COMINAK, production is becoming unstable. For the year 1999, these mines produced around 3000 metric tons of uranium, which is half of COGEMA’s production for the year. But the economic situation of Niger is very difficult and thus Niger is not as reliable of a uranium source as it used to be12. COGEMA has begun to diversify itself into other uranium markets because of the difficulties it has found in obtaining uranium from its historical uranium supply.