France

1 - Bessines-sur-Gartempe, a reference in mining innovation

Converted between 1993 and 2000, the former mining site in Bessines-sur-Gartempe is today a reference industrial platform combining activities in research, innovation, energy, knowledge, health and the environment. The Bessines industrial site houses the Mining Innovation Centre (CIM), a world-renowned research and development centre that elaborates ore treatment and recovery processes. The industrial platform is also home to Oranon Med's Maurice Tubiana laboratory, which produces medical-grade lead 212, needed in the development of innovative cancer treatments.

2 - Malvési et Tricastin: transforming and enriching ore

It is in the southern half of the country that uranium concentrates from mining sites around the world are transformed. The first stage takes place at the site in Malvési, near Narbonne, after which the conversion and enrichment process is completed in Tricastin, in the Rhone Valley.

3 - Spent fuel recycling: a French area of expertise

Orano's site in La Hague handles the first stage in the recycling of spent fuel from nuclear reactors around the world. Located near the Cotentin Peninsula, near Cherbourg, it is set across a 300 hectaresite. The first industrial centre of its kind in the world, the site boasts processing capacity of 1,700 tonnes of spent fuel per year, or the equivalent of what 80 nuclear reactorsproduce.
Further south, in Melox at the Marcoule site in the Gard, it also produces MOX, a fuel made ofuranium and plutonium derived from the recycling of fuel used in nuclear power plants.

4 - Sharing expertise and aiming for operational excellence

From creating industrial sites, to providing engineering support for operations, support for investment projects, recovery and conditioning of old waste (RCD projects) or assistance in maintaining site activity. Within the Orano Group, the Projects Business Unit holds all the Group’s expertise in nuclear fuel cycle engineering for its facilities and external clients. Orano Projets draws on the experience of more than 40 years of design, execution and operation across the world, driven by the engineers at the teams in Equeurdreville and St-Quentin-en-Yvelines as well as Bagnols-sur-Cèze.

5 - Decommissioning older facilities

France having chosen nuclear power since the early 1970s, Orano's teams have accumulated recognised expertise in decommissioning old facilities. The Group has its own decontamination workshop (Triade) at the Tricastin site and carries out decommissioning operations across the territory.