If approved, the state-owned electric company will build a 37-acre recycling center near the Fessenheim nuclear power plant.
Metals with low levels of radioactive waste would undergo a purification process in a smelting furnace at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
France is the largest nuclear power producer in Europe, but its aging power plants have forced the country to dismantle older reactors and pursue new, smaller modular reactors. Part of the plan for handling waste from its power plants is to recycle some materials into cutlery.
Reusing materials from nuclear power plants isn’t new. Sweden and Germany already have innovative ways to recycle metals from decommissioned reactors. However, the proposal of the French state-owned company Électricité de France (EDF) is striking. With the closure of France’s oldest nuclear power plant at Fessenheim, EDF proposes using some of the materials to manufacture forks, doorknobs, and saucepans.
Pending public debate and final approval in February 2025, EDF plans to build a 37-acre recycling center near the Fessenheim plant, closed in 2020.
According to Euronews, EDF clarified that it will only convert “very low radioactive” materials into cast iron or steel to make new products. It will send other nuclear waste to processing facilities.
The new recycling center could process 500,000 tons of low-level radioactive metals over 40 years. EDF plans to melt 85% of the metals in an electric arc furnace at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, while the remaining 15% will be filtered and returned to nuclear storage facilities without being recycled.
The recycled metals would produce ingots weighing about 44 pounds for the conventional metallurgical industry. According to French media outlet Reporterre, these materials could be used for various products, a possibility that has already drawn criticism from environmental organizations like Stop Fessenheim:
“Imagine that one day, this radioactive scrap metal ends up in the springs of your mattress, in your saucepans, or even in the metal part of your baby’s stroller... It’s a way of spreading radioactivity," a representative of the organization said, according to an English translation provided by Google.
Until 2022, French law prohibited the recovery of waste from nuclear power plants under a zoning principle that classified all waste from a nuclear facility as radioactive. However, the government changed the law this year to allow the reuse of low-risk waste.
Laurent Jarry, former director of the Fessenheim plant, argues that these metals are essentially scrap. He acknowledges that, like any other material, their radiation level is above zero. However, he says they’ll be safe for the metallurgical industry once they’re cleaned and melted down at the processing center.
Image | engin akyurt (Unsplash) edited by Xataka On
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