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Tricastin Nuclear Power Plant
The Tricastin Nuclear Power Plant () is a nuclear power plant consisting of 4 pressurized water reactors (PWRs) of CP1 type with 915 MW electrical power output each. The power plant is located in the south of France (Drôme and Vaucluse Department) at the Canal de Donzère-Mondragon near the Donzère-Mondragon Dam and the commune Pierrelatte. The power plant is part of the widespread Tricastin Nuclear Site (see below), which was named after the historic Tricastin region. Three out of the four reactors on the site had been used until 2012 to power the Eurodif Uranium enrichment plant, which had been located on the site. Tricastin Nuclear Site The Tricastin Nuclear Site (Site Nucléaire du Tricastin) is a collection of facilities run by Areva and EDF located on right bank of the Channel of Donzère-Mondragon (diversion canal of the Rhône River) south of the city of Valence (70 km upstream) and north of Avignon (65 km downstream). The site straddles the borde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux
Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (; ), sometimes known as -en-Tricastin, is a commune, an administrative region, in the Drôme department in southeastern France. Name The settlement is attested as ''Augusta Tricastinorum'' (1st c. AD), ''Trikastinoi ōn polis Noiomagos'' (2nd c.), ''Sancti Pauli vel Sancti Restituti Trigastinensi'' (993), ''in Tricastrinensi'' (1132), ''civitate Tricastrina'' (1136), ''San Paul'' (ca. 1180), ''Sanctum Paulum Tricastinensem'' (1338), and ''Sainct Pol Trois Chasteaux'' (1545). The toponym derives from the name of the ancient Gallic tribe that dwelled in the region, the Tricastini. The insertion of an epenthetic ''r'' that changed ''Tricastini'' to ''Tricastrini'', which is attested by the 12th century, caused a semantic reinterpretation of the name, leading eventually to the modern French ''Trois-Châteaux'', meaning 'three-castles' (Latin ''Tria-Castra''). Population Sport It was the start of stage 16 of the 2011 Tour de France, to Gap, as we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valence, Drôme
Valence (, ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in southeastern France, the prefecture of the Drôme Departments of France, department and within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhône, about south of Lyon, along the railway line that runs from Paris to Marseille. It is the eighth-largest city in the region by its population and has 64,726 registered inhabitants in 2018 (132,556 inhabitants in the urban area (''unité urbaine''). The city is divided into four Cantons of the Drôme department, cantons. Located in the heart of the Vallée du Rhône (France), Rhone corridor, Valence is often referred to as "the door to the South of France", the local saying ''à Valence le Midi commence'' ("at Valence the Midi begins") pays tribute to the city's southern culture. Between Vercors Massif, Vercors and Provence, its geographical location attracts many tourists. Axes of transport and communications are the A7 autoroute, A7 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcoule Nuclear Site
Marcoule Nuclear Site () is a nuclear facility in the Chusclan and Codolet communes, near Bagnols-sur-Cèze in the Gard department of France, which is in the tourist, wine and agricultural Côtes-du-Rhône region. The plant is around 25 km north west of Avignon, on the banks of the Rhone. Operational since 1956, Marcoule is a gigantic site run by the atomic energy organization Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA) and Areva NC and is known as CEA VALRHO Marcoule. The first industrial and military plutonium experiments took place in Marcoule. Diversification of the site was started in the 1970s with the creation of the Phénix prototype fast breeder reactor, which was operational until 2009, and is nowadays an important site for decommissioning nuclear facilities activities. the Phénix reactor was planned to be succeeded by the sodium-cooled fast reactor ASTRID (Advanced Sodium Technical Reactor for Industrial Demonstration), foreseen to become operational in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Separative Work Units
Separative work – the amount of separation done by a Uranium enrichment process – is a function of the concentrations of the feedstock, the enriched output, and the depleted tailings; and is expressed in units which are so calculated as to be proportional to the total input (energy / machine operation time) and to the mass processed. The same amount of separative work will require different amounts of energy depending on the efficiency of the separation technology. Separative work is measured in ''Separative work units'' SWU, kg SW, or kg UTA (from the German ''Urantrennarbeit'' – literally ''uranium separation work'') * 1 SWU = 1 kg SW = 1 kg UTA * 1 kSWU = 1 tSW = 1 t UTA * 1 MSWU = 1 ktSW = 1 kt UTA Separative work unit is ''not'' a unit of energy, but serves as a measure of the enrichment ''services''. In the early 2020s the cost of 1 SWU was approximately $100. The unit was introduced by Paul Dirac in 1941. Definition The work W_\mathrm necessary to sep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gas Centrifuge
A gas centrifuge is a device that performs isotope separation of gases. A centrifuge relies on the principles of centrifugal force accelerating molecules so that particles of different masses are physically separated in a gradient along the radius of a rotating container. A prominent use of gas centrifuges is for the separation of uranium-235 (235U) from uranium-238 (238U). The gas centrifuge was developed to replace the gaseous diffusion method of 235U extraction. High degrees of separation of these isotopes relies on using many individual centrifuges arranged in series that achieve successively higher concentrations. This process yields higher concentrations of 235U while using significantly less energy compared to the gaseous diffusion process. History Suggested in 1919, the centrifugal process was first successfully performed in 1934. American scientist Jesse Beams and his team at the University of Virginia developed the process by separating two isotopes of chlorine, chlori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaseous Diffusion
Gaseous diffusion is a technology that was used to produce enriched uranium by forcing gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6) through microporous membranes. This produces a slight separation (enrichment factor 1.0043) between the molecules containing uranium-235 (235U) and uranium-238 (238U). By use of a large cascade of many stages, high separations can be achieved. It was the first process to be developed that was capable of producing enriched uranium in industrially useful quantities, but is nowadays considered obsolete, having been superseded by the more-efficient gas centrifuge process (enrichment factor 1.05 to 1.2). Gaseous diffusion was devised by Francis Simon and Nicholas Kurti at the Clarendon Laboratory in 1940, tasked by the MAUD Committee with finding a method for separating uranium-235 from uranium-238 in order to produce a bomb for the British Tube Alloys project. The prototype gaseous diffusion equipment itself was manufactured by Metropolitan-Vickers (MetroVick ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georges Besse
Georges Besse (25 December 1927 – 17 November 1986) was a French businessman who helped lead several large state-controlled companies. He was assassinated outside his Paris home in front of one of his children by the armed group Action directe while he was the CEO of car manufacturer Renault. Résumé * 1958 - General manager of USSI Ingénierie, a uranium enrichment firm * 1964 - Assistant general manager of CIT- Alcatel * 1974 - President of Eurodif * 1978 - Chairman of COGEMA * 1982 - Director of Pechiney-Ugine-Kulmann * 1985 - Director of Renault Renault Besse became the head of the public-owned Renault automaker in January 1985. He was credited with taking the money-losing company to reporting a profit only two months before he was gunned down. He was criticized because his plan to make the bloated enterprise efficient included closing plants and laying off 21,000 workers. Labor unions opposed his actions in Europe, as well as his support for Renault's investment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uranium Hexafluoride
Uranium hexafluoride, sometimes called hex, is the inorganic compound with the formula . Uranium hexafluoride is a volatile, white solid that is used in enriching uranium for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Preparation Uranium dioxide is converted with hydrofluoric acid (HF) to uranium tetrafluoride: : The resulting is subsequently oxidized with fluorine to give the hexafluoride: : In samples contaminated with uranium trioxide, uranyl fluoride, an oxyfluoride compound is produced in the HF step: : which can be fluorinated to produce the same product, uranium hexafluoride. : The fluorination step in both reactions above are highly exothermic. Properties Physical properties At atmospheric pressure, sublimes at 56.5 °C. The solid-state structure was determined by neutron diffraction at 77 K and 293 K.J. C. Taylor, P. W. Wilson, J. W. Kelly: „The structures of fluorides. I. Deviations from ideal symmetry in the structure of crystalline UF6: a neutron diffract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 tons (the W54) and 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba (see TNT equivalent). Yields in the low kilotons can devastate cities. A thermonuclear weapon weighing as little as can release energy equal to more than 1.2 megatons of TNT (5.0 PJ). Apart from the blast, effects of nuclear weapons include firestorms, extreme heat and ionizing radiation, radioactive nuclear fallout, an electromagnetic pulse, and a radar blackout. The first nuclear weapons were developed by the Allied Manhattan Project during World War II. Their production continues to require a large scientific and industrial complex, pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commissariat à L'énergie Atomique
The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, or CEA ( French: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), is a French public government-funded research organisation in the areas of energy, defense and security, information technologies and health technologies. The CEA maintains a cross-disciplinary culture of engineers and researchers, building on the synergies between fundamental and technological research. CEA is headed by a board headed by the general administrator (currently François Jacq since 20 April 2018), advised by the high-commissioner for atomic energy (currently ). Its yearly budget amounts to €5.8 billion and its permanent staff is slightly over 21,000 persons. History CEA was created in 1945; since then, the successive high-commissioners have been Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Francis Perrin, , , Raoul Dautry, René Pellat, Bernard Bigot, Catherine Cesarsky, , and François Jacq. In December 2009, French President ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
COGEMA La Hague Site
The La Hague site is a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at La Hague on the Cotentin Peninsula in northern France, with the Manche storage centre bordering on it. Operated by Orano, formerly AREVA, and prior to that COGEMA (), La Hague has nearly half of the world's light water reactor spent nuclear fuel reprocessing capacity. It has been in operation since 1976, and has a capacity of about 1,700 tonnes per year. It extracts plutonium which is then recycled into MOX fuel at the Marcoule site. It has treated spent nuclear fuel from France, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. It processed 1100 tonnes in 2005. The non-recyclable part of the radioactive waste is eventually sent back to the user nation. Prior to 2015, more than 32,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel has been reprocessed, with 70% of that from France, 17% from Germany and 9% from Japan. Operations Spent nuclear fuel roughly consists of three categories. The largest fraction by far is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
