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Shutting down the Fessenheim nuclear power plant will lead to additional emissions and the loss of thousands of jobs, writes Valérie Faudon, general delegate of the French Nuclear ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Society.

France's support to the International Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Agency's technical cooperation programme "goes a long way" in helping African countries get access to nuclear technology and expertise in the areas of food and agriculture and cancer care, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian yesterday.

Framatome has officially opened a new engineering research and operations centre at Cadarache in south-eastern France. It has also announced an expansion of its Intercontrôle automated non-destructive testing subsidiary, which is based at the same site.

EDF has disconnected France's longest serving nuclear power unit - Fessenheim 1 - from the electricity grid, thus ending the reactor's 42 years of low-carbon electricity production. The unit was removed from the network at 2am on 22 February, as scheduled. The utility said the primary circuit cooling operations had been initiated to open the reactor vessel and unload its fuel. Unit 2 is scheduled for closure on 30 June.

Framatome has signed service contracts with Teollisuuden Voima Oyj to support the long-term operation of unit 3 of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant on Finland's west coast. Grid connection of the European pressurised reactor is scheduled for November, with the start of regular electricity production expected in March 2021.

French nuclear fuel cycle company Orano has been authorised to begin dismantling the Georges Besse diffusion enrichment plant at the Tricastin complex in southeastern France. The plant was shut down in June 2012 following 33 years of service and was replaced by the centrifuge-based Georges Besse II plant.

Workers yesterday completed hot tests at the EPR under construction as unit 3 of the Flamanville nuclear power plant in France. The tests - which began on 21 September last year - aim to simulate the temperatures and pressures which the reactor's systems will be subjected to during normal operation.

French Orano has signed a contract with Japan's Nuclear Fuel Industries for the fabrication of 32 MOX fuel assemblies for the Takahama 3 and 4 reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Company. Mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, is nuclear fuel made from reprocessed plutonium and uranium.

Orano has won a contract to dismantle the walls and structure of two former used fuel interim storage pools at Marcoule in France. Under the contract, awarded by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß Commission, the company will use a 12-tonne robot in one of the biggest such projects carried out in the country.

Spanish manufacturer Equipos Nucleares SA has completed the installation of three heat exchangers for the primary circuit of the Jules Horowitz Reactor, under construction at Cadarache in southern France. Once in operation, the reactor will be used for testing of materials and fuels for current and future nuclear reactor designs.

France's Framatome has been awarded a contract by the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) to support research that will inform the development of new materials to be used in the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider, a major upgrade to the existing Large Hadron Collider.

Spanish manufacturer Equipos Nucleares SA (ENSA) has shipped two replacement steam generators to France, completing an order received at the end of 2012 from Framatome for three such components for use in 900 MWe-class pressurised water reactors. It was not disclosed at which plant the steam generators are to be installed.