French fuel company Orano (formerly New Areva) is refurbishing its uranium conversion facility in Malvési in Narbonne, where the new Comurhex II plant has been running since the summer of 2016, which processes 25% of the world's ore produced in Australia, Niger, Namibia and Kazakhstan. The Orano plant receives uranium concentrates, purifies them and converts them to uranium tetrafluoride (UF4). This is sent by train to its sister site Tricastin Pierrelatte in the Drôme, to be transformed into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) used to make NPP fuel.
Having completed an investment cycle of €500m over 10 years, Orano is now starting a new five- year cycle with investment of €300m. Orano CEO Philippe Knoche said on 11 June that the company has a 10-year backlog. While previous investments were used to cut water consumption by a factor of 10, reduced ammonia by 75%, and promised more than 50% recycling of nitric acid, the new investment cycle will include a €80m nitrate waste treatment unit (TDN) to meet more environmental requirements, which will use Studsvik's Thor thermal process.
Orano plans the start of construction in the second half of 2018 and commissioning in late 2020-early 2021.The unit will produce gaseous residues free from nitrate, which are solid, and which will be acceptable to National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra) sites, which currently refuse to accommodate nitrate waste. TDN will treat the 18,000 m3 of nitrate effluents produced each year and will also gradually treat 350,000 m3 accumulated in evaporation ponds. The new investment will also be used to upgrade the conversion plant's hydrofluorination unit, and to establish a €30m dry sludge storage cell, as well as for upgrades to security.
The Orano Malvesi site will benefit from a five-year contract signed in early 2018 between its parent company and US competitor ConverDyn, a subsidiary of the Honeywell Group, which last year suspended its own conversion activities. In the short term, 40% of uranium converted for US NPPs will come from Malvesi. However, the company also aims to increase its market share in Asia. Today, the Malvési site produces 14,000 to 15,000 tonnes a year, employs 250 people directly and 100 more through subcontracts. The ConverDyn deal will represent about 20% of the output of the Comhurex II conversion plant.
