Orano - Annual Activity Report 2024 188 4 SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT Environmental information 4.2.5.2 Innovating to preserve resources and protect health Orano has placed the preservation of its resources at the core of its purpose, with a strong focus on product and service innovation. Policies and actions relating to circularity in products and services Orano has always been a player in the circular economy throughout the nuclear fuel cycle by: ● designing and operating its units to limit resources and waste; ● optimizing the use of its products to limit the use of raw materials and preserve the work and energy that went into producing them; and ● using our skills to develop new activities around circularity and recycling. On the strength of this experience, Orano not only reinforces this conduct for its current activities but also studies services, processes, and solutions to extend this strategy to other fields of activity in which Orano has a legitimate claim. These guidelines are part of the group’s strategy, validated by the Chief Executive Officer, who monitors its proper execution. 50 years of expertise in resource recycling As the world leader in processing and recycling, Orano relies on its recognized expertise to provide its customers with efficient, safe, and responsible management of used nuclear fuel. Orano retrieves recoverable materials (uranium and plutonium) from used fuel to recycle them and manufacture new fuels, such as MOX, for nuclear reactors. Recycling can retrieve up to 96% recoverable material from used fuel: 1% plutonium, and 95% uranium. The remaining 4% are fission products, i.e., non-recoverable final waste. This first stage is carried out in the Orano la Hague plant. In a second stage, Orano produces a recycled fuel, i.e., MOX. MOX fuel is used to supply nuclear power plants (France, Japan, the Netherlands). Depending on customer requirements, the assembly that combines plutonium and depleted uranium, contains between 3% and 12% plutonium. In France, 10% of nuclear electricity is currently produced using MOX fuel, i.e., almost 8% of electricity (all sources combined). Within this same recycling process, the group places special importance on the responsible use of materials and consumables used in operations. Through the processes of extracting and separating recyclable materials (uranium and plutonium) in la Hague, chemicals that are used during the operations (in particular nitric acid and solvents) are recovered and reused. The French government’s announcements in 2024 make it possible to secure the sustainability of this activity beyond the life of the current facilities. The “Back End of the Future” program, through which the group intends to renew its used fuel processing and recycling plants by 2040-2050, is in line with the decisions of the Nuclear Policy Council (CPN) of February 26, 2024. The latter confirmed the national treatment-recycling strategy for fuels from current and future nuclear power plants. Developing and exporting this know-how The proportion of nuclear electricity generated from recycled materials could increase to 25% with the recycling of uranium contained in used fuel (MOX). This figure could technically reach 30% thanks to MOX 2, a new type of fuel that will enable the multirecycling of nuclear fuels. The safe recycling of used fuel is a know-how mastered by Orano and recognized internationally. 44 commercial reactors worldwide had been loaded with MOX fuel since the beginning of the seventies: 38 in Europe (22 in France, 10 in Germany, three in Switzerland, two in Belgium and one in the Netherlands), five in Japan and one in the United States. In 2014, the Netherlands became the seventh largest user of MOX fuel. This recognition is also reflected in Orano’s assistance to countries that are developing their recycling channels: Japan and the United Kingdom). Business innovation to accelerate the group’s growth: inventing the value creation models of tomorrow The group continues to improve its performance. Since the creation of Orano, actions to diversify its activities, renew its value creation models and explore new growth opportunities by further enhancing its unique skills, world-renowned expertise, cutting-edge technologies, and materials, have been accelerated, with a real desire to explore new possibilities and invent other strategies. The group is exploring and developing new models in the following areas: circular economy of rare and strategic resources, transition and modernization of industrial models, control and reduction of the impact of complex materials, health ecosystems, carbon neutrality, and reduction of the environmental footprint. The lessons from these explorations are integrated into the development of an innovative and more sustainable nuclear sector, particularly in terms of reducing the amount of nuclear waste. A portfolio of potential new activities is being developed with a view to: ● develop services around use, such as for DN30 nuclear materials transport packaging offered for lease to utility customers rather than for sale; ● the circular economy, in line with its strategy of recycling, ecodesign, and rehabilitation of ecosystems, including mining; and ● deeptech, with projects related to major societal issues. To accelerate the momentum around deeptech, in 2023 Orano renewed its partnership with Hello Tomorrow and its participation in the Global Challenge. This annual deeptech start-up competition addresses the major challenges of tomorrow and explores and co-develops new growth opportunities with them. In line with its strategy of always contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions and its ambition to confirm its position in the circular economy, Orano has once again repeated the “Unlocking the CO2 circular economy” challenge to support solutions for the capture and storage of CO2, regeneration of CO2 sinks, and recovery of CO2 as a raw material.
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