Paris
FRANCE’s highest court has thrown a monkey wrench into plans to convert
the world’s largest fast-breeder reactor, Superph茅nix, into a research
site and nuclear waste incinerator.
Ruling on a lawsuit filed by several environmental groups, the Council of
State has invalidated a 1994 government decree authorising operation of the
nuclear plant for both power generation and research. The council wants a new
public inquiry before the reactor, which is currently shut down for renovation,
can be restarted. As New 女生小视频 went to press, Prime Minister Alain
Jupp茅 had not decided whether to order such an inquiry, which is likely
to be lengthy.
Whatever decision he takes, it is bound to be controversial. Two senior
ministers have already taken opposite sides on the issue. While environment
minister Corinne Lepage agrees that a new public inquiry is needed to redefine
Superph茅nix as a research tool, industry minister Franck Borotra believes
that only slight modifications to the 1994 decree are required.
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Controversy and delay are nothing new to Superph茅nix. Located on the
banks of the Rh么ne about 50 kilometres west of Lyon, the breeder reactor
is owned and operated by NERSA, a consortium of French, German, Italian, Dutch
and Belgian partners. The plant is designed to produce 1200 megawatts of
electricity and has cost about 30 billion francs (拢3.3 billion) to build
and operate so far.
Since the reactor was hooked up to the national power grid in January 1986,
it has worked at full capacity for a total of only 10 months. Its most serious
problems included two leakages of liquid sodium, which is used to cool the
reactor and vaporises on contact with air. These forced the plant to shut down
in 1987 and again in 1990.
Since 24 December last year, the reactor has been closed for modifications to
its core. The renovations, which involve removing secondary uranium rods, will
make the reactor consume more plutonium than it produces. The gradual conversion
of Superph茅nix from reactor to waste plutonium incinerator was to be
completed in 2003.
The French atomic energy authorities had planned experimental burns of
plutonium and neptunium as early as this summer. “So far, we have not changed
our schedule of experiments,” says nuclear physicist Pascal Anzieu, who heads
the Superph茅nix research programme. But the court decision means that a
lengthy delay is possible.
