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Cogema is the French Government-owned nuclear group, one of the largest suppliers of uranium in the world and the only company to offer every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle to the industry, from mining to waste management. Cogema was created in 1976, from the Production Division of the French Atomic Energy Agency (CEA). The CEA holds a 74.7% stake in the company, which provides services to the civil and military sides of the French nuclear industry, as well as to many international clients. There is no essential division between the military, government and commercial aspects of nuclear power in France, and Cogema lies at the heart of French nuclear operations. Uranium
Mining Operations in Australia have been scaled back in recent years with the long-term slump of the world uranium market, but Cogema is still exploring extensively in Arnhem Land in the NT, in partnership with Canadian industry heavyweight Cameco, among others. Cogema suffered a recent setback with the collapse of negotiations with Traditional Owners over the Koongarra lease, cut from Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. It also holds a stalled prospect at Ben Lomond in Queensland, through its 100% owned subsidiary Afmeco. Afmeco was left holding the bag after Anaconda Uranium pulled out of an agreement to buy Ben Lomond when the ALP banned uranium mining in Queensland at the last state elections. In Western Australia, Afmeco ran a disastrous in-situ leach trial at Manyingee (at which they were unable to rehabilitate the groundwater after trying for a period of 7 years.) They also held leases at Oobagooma. In a series of staged payments Afmeco has ceded control of the projects to Paladin Resources in 1998, but still retains a small royalty should they ever come into production. 1 According to Dept of Minerals and Energy records, the Oobagooma and Manyingee leases are still held in Cogema's name. Cogema has ridden out the era of low uranium prices on the strength of guaranteed access to the French market and its control over so many aspects of the fuel cycle. Total uranium production for the COGEMA Group is around 6500 metric tons per year.2 Reprocessing La Hague is perhaps most famous for the nuclear waste discharge pipe which pumps hundreds of millions of litres of liquid radioactive waste into the North Atlantic Ocean every single year. In 1998 Greenpeace and French-state agency OPRI found radiation at the pipes surface as high as 200 microsieverts per hour, around 2000 times higher than normal background radiation.4 In June 2000, the OSPAR commission in Europe voted by a three quarter majority to compel England and France to review reprocessing in favour of dry storage, citing fears of the effects of ocean dumping. While this is not legally binding, it does put Cogema under a great deal of pressure and represents a major moral victory for the people of Europe. It also sends a warning to the Federal Government of Australia - Cogema reprocesses spent fuel from the Lucas Heights research reactor at La Hague, and any move to close or restrict access to the facility would scramble the government's plans for a new reactor. The Cogema plants at La Hague are among the most important nuclear sites in the world. Shutting them down, as well as reducing the terrible pollution they produce, would bring a large part of the global fuel cycle to a halt. The
CEA
1. Paladin Resources Annual Report 1998 2. "Mining operations" - Cogema website 3.
Reprocessing in France
by Mycle Schneider and Mathieu Pavageau - IEER Energy & Security
No. 2 4.
"COGEMA'S NUCLEAR WASTE DISCHARGE PIPE STILL IRRADIATING PUBLIC
BEACH" |
CEA-Industrie
(74.7%)
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the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western
Australia
email robin@anawa.org.au |
