Georges-Besse plant

Georges-Besse plant
The plant's two cooling towers
Country	France
Location	Rhône-Alpes, Drôme, Pierrelatte
Coordinates	44°19′50″N 4°43′18″E / 44.3306°N 4.7217°E / 44.3306; 4.7217
Status	Decommissioned
Decommission date	2012
Operator(s)	Eurodif Production
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The Georges-Besse plant, known as the Eurodif plant from 1978 to 1988 (for European Gaseous Diffusion Uranium Enrichment Consortium), was a nuclear facility specializing in uranium enrichment by gaseous diffusion. The plant, now in the nuclear dismantling phase, is located on the Tricastin nuclear site at Pierrelatte in the Drôme region.

On the initiative of French President Georges Pompidou in late 1969, an agreement was signed between France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain in 1972 to give France complete autonomy over the nuclear fuel cycle. The plant was inaugurated in 1979 and operated for 33 years by Eurodif SA, a subsidiary of Areva NC. Along with Urenco, which operates based on an agreement between Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands, it was the only uranium enrichment plant operating based on a multinational agreement.^[1]

The Tricastin nuclear site comprises several nuclear facilities, the largest of which are the Tricastin nuclear power plant, the former Georges-Besse plant, and the new Georges-Besse II centrifuge enrichment plant.

The enriched uranium produced was used as fuel by French nuclear power plants and many foreign power plants. The enriched uranium produced by this plant supplied around 90 pressurized water reactors, the most widely used nuclear technology in the world, including the 58 French reactors. Eurodif SA's customers included EDF and over 30 electricity companies worldwide, and its main competitors were the United States and Russia.