Recycling Benefits

1. Recycling Benefits Rémi Coulon Executive Vice-President, Strategy & International Projects Back-End Division, AREVA AIEA, June 3, 2010

2. The Case for Recycling Front-End benefits • Uranium savings • Energy security Competitive and predictable economics Back-End benefits • Optimizes final repository • Volume • Decay heat • Radiotoxicity • Standardized waste forms • Introduces long-term storage as a viable complement: flexibility in repository timing Nuclearacceptance Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.2

3. Recycling Strengthens Non-proliferation • Recycling restricted to a few regional centers under international safeguards • Offering recycling services to a wide range of customers • Avoiding the accumulation of used fuel in multiple storage sites worldwide • Returning to customers final waste not subject to AIEA safeguards • Plutonium recycled in MOX fuel • Consumes roughly one third of the plutonium and controls overall Pu inventory • Significantly degrades the isotopic composition of the remaining plutonium and thus the potential attractiveness for non-peaceful usage • Commercial recycling facilities such as La Hague and Melox have a perfect track record with respect to fissile materials safeguards • Recycling contributes to international non-proliferation initiatives • Weapon-grade plutonium disposition (MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility in the US) • Securing « gap material » Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.3

4. Which Recycling? UOX Fuel Used Fuel Disposal Uranium Front-End Direct Disposal Used Fuel Used Fuel UOX Fuel Final Waste Disposal Recycling Gen III Recycling Final waste Uranium Front-End Light Water Reactors Recycled Fuel (U, Pu) Used Fuel Final waste Disposal Recycling Final Waste Gen IV Recycling Fast Neutron Reactors Recycled Fuel (U, Pu and possibly minor actinides) Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.4

5. Compared Benefits of Recycling Options • Gen IV recycling through fast neutron reactors holds great promises • Significant extension of the uranium resource • From several hundred to several thousands of years of availability of the total Uranium resource • Benefiting from directly available resources such as depleted Uranium • Much reduced radiotoxicity of the final waste • But today’s Gen III LWR recycling already starts to address those issues • 25% uranium savings through LWR MOX and Enriched Reprocessed uranium fuel • Radiotoxicity reduction by 10 compared to direct disposal • … using proven technologies and commercial models Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.5

6. Repository Potential Radiotoxicity Minor Actinides + Fission Products Pu + MA + FP U-Pu LWR Gen III Recycling Used fuel Direct disposal Relative radiotoxicity Uranium Ore (mine) U-Pu recycling + MA transmutation Gen IV Recycling Fission Products Time (years) • Assuming an optimistic 100% efficiency in the partitioning and transmutation of all Minor Actinides with Gen IV recycling Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.6

7. Mass Balances… • Fast neutron reactors need significant quantities of starting material (HEU or Pu) • Pu likely preferred in a uranium-constrained world • Need for ~ 10 Tons of Plutonium to start a 1 GWe FNR, irrespective of final configuration (breeder, iso, burner) • Corresponding to the processing of 1000 Tons of used UOX fuel • FNR can only start by using used LWR fuel and will therefore need a significant (Gen III) recycling infrastructure in place Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.7

8. Advanced Processes Development • New processes such as advanced separations and complex fuel manufacturing with minor actinides take time to develop • Gen-IV recycling characteristics are still unclear and strongly influenced by various views on the need/scale of Minor Actinides management • Lengthy qualification: bench-scale R&D, small-scale pilot, industrial demonstrator • Measured in decades • A significant part of any future Gen IV recycling plant will draw from and rely on today’s industrial experience • Facility head-end (e.g., used fuel shearing) • HLW vitrification • Metallic waste (cladding) management • Liquid waste and air emissions management • Maintenance in high activity environment • Nuclear measurement and safeguardability of large-scale commercial facilities Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.8

9. Today’s Commercial Recycling Platforms are a Powerful Basis for Implementing Evolution • Example of La Hague plant evolutions over the past 20 years • While designed for 33000 MWd/T UOX fuel, has been able to recycle a wide variety of fuels • Burn-up increase up to 55 000 MWd/T • Used MOX • Implementation of an on-line conditioning of waste • Simplification of the number of cycles used in the purification process • Radioactivity released divided by 20 (systematic in-plant recycling of process flows) • Total dose to exposed workers divided by 30 • La Hague continues to progress • Further adaptation to fuel evolution such as new cladding materials • Systematic implementation of State-of-the-art manufacturing optimization techniques (TPM, six-sigma) • Increased capacity and efficiency through the introduction of new technologies such as the Cold Crucible Melter for vitrification (after a 15-year qualification process) Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.9

10. Recycling Infrastructure Development • Recycling requires a significant and qualified infrastructure in place • R&D • Engineering • Operators • Safety Authorities • Supply Chain • Today’s Gen III large-scale, commercial recycling provides the key platform from which to build the future recycling Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.10

11. Conclusion • Recycling provides key benefits that will reinforce and sustain the nuclear renaissance • Both LWR and Fast Neutron Reactor recycling approaches should not be opposed but are fully complementary and should be actively pushed in parallel • Transition time: LWR and fast neutron reactors will co-exist for multiple decades • Risk management: controlled, gradual introduction of new technologies as they mature • Today’s state-of-the-art commercial recycling platforms are in fact a key enabler of the long-term Gen IV vision Recycling Benefits - R. Coulon - AIEA - June 3, 2010 - p.11