The French Ministry of Defense announced, on Monday, a “collaboration” with Électricité de France (EDF), the country’s main energy company, to produce tritium, a “rare gas essential for the deterrence of nuclear weapons”, it reported. the AFP
According to the ministry, the idea is to use the power of the two nuclear reactors at the Civaux plant (West of France) to produce tritium with the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).
The announcement, presented as a long-term project, follows a visit to the Civaux plant by French Defense Minister, Sébastien Lecornu.
France is the only member of the European Union (EU) that has nuclear weapons. France’s nuclear deterrent, based on its maritime (nuclear submarines) and air components, must be constantly adapted and renewed to remain credible.
In a press release, the Ministry of Defense highlighted a “collaboration between EDF and Defense for the installation of an irradiation service” for materials capable of producing tritium.
The ministry emphasizes that “this collaboration has been studied since the 90s and is part of a long-standing planning process, common in the defense industry”.
EDF’s objective is to carry out a first small-scale test during one of the two scheduled shutdowns of the Civaux plant in 2025.
Tritium is a “difficult gas to produce, which disintegrates and disappears spontaneously”, indicated the Ministry of Defense, adding that “any reserve is reduced to half after 12 years, to three quarters after 25 years and to 99 .5% after a century”. Therefore, it is necessary to “produce them regularly”, he concluded.