Nuclear: the Orano group signs a billion-euro contract for the return of waste to Germany – franceinfo

The French nuclear group Orano announced Thursday, August 19, that it had signed a contract worth more than one billion euros for the return to Germany by the end of 2024 of nuclear waste that has been processed in France. The contracts with the electricians PreussenElektra, RWE, ENBW and Vattenfall concern “the return of all German nuclear waste still stored at the Orano La Hague plant” (Channel), explains Orano in a press release.

This announcement thus marks the formalization of an agreement in principle that was announced in mid-June by the two governments, German and French. According to French law, nuclear waste that enters France, in particular to be treated there at the Orano plant in La Hague, cannot remain in France in the long term.

German electricians had in the past called on Orano (at the time Cogema) for the treatment and recycling of their spent fuels, for a quantity representing 5,310 tonnes. According to usual practice, it is not actually the same waste as that which entered France that will be returned but “the equivalent in mass and radioactivity”.

“Over 97% of the total radioactivity has already been returned”, explains Orano. “After consultation between the German utilities and Orano, with the agreement of the German and French authorities, the remainder of radioactivity and mass equivalents will be returned in the form of high-level vitrified waste and used packaging by 2024”, explains the group.

The agreement unveiled in June provided that instead of sending intermediate radioactive waste back to Germany, as was initially planned, France would finally send high level waste back there. It will therefore take less volume and less time to send the same level of radioactivity back to Germany.