Yesterday, ANSTO was advised that the Caen Court of Appeal in France had ruled against COGEMA - the company contracted to reprocess its non US-origin spent reactor fuel - in an action brought by Greenpeace concerning the storage of spent nuclear fuel from ANSTO.
ANSTO understands that the court gave COGEMA three months to produce the necessary documentation giving permission to reprocess the fuel. Failing that, the spent fuel would need to be removed from French soil within two months.
ANSTO further understands that COGEMA applied for an authorisation to reprocess the fuel in May 2004, and that they anticipate receiving the authorisation within the period set by the court. ANSTO is therefore confident that any issue concerning return of the spent fuel will not arise.
It is standard practice for COGEMA to only apply for reprocessing authorisations shortly before the reprocessing of a particular batch of spent fuel. That practice, which is best practice in safety management, has been followed in this case.
The decision is part of an ongoing series of rulings, appeals and counter appeals that have taken place since March 2001 in an attempt to stop COGEMA reprocessing spent fuel.
COGEMA is once again appealing this latest ruling. The issue is between COGEMA, the French regulator and the French legal system, and ANSTO’s contract with COGEMA has not been called into question.
Whilst the case in question concerned spent fuel from ANSTO, its implications relate to the entirety of COGEMA’s spent fuel business. Given the importance of this business to France and to the sustainability of its nuclear power industry (which supplies almost 80% of French electricity supplies), French government intervention is possible.
The contract ANSTO has with COGEMA only foresees the return of intermediate-level waste arising from reprocessing, not un-reprocessed spent fuel.