The existing uranium defluorination facility at Zelenogorsk in Russia. Photo courtesy Tvel. Orano of France has signed of a €40m contract with Electrochemical Plant (ECP), a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, related to the construction of a second depleted uranium defluorination facility at the Zelenogorsk site near St Petersburg in Russia.

Under the terms of the agreement, Orano will supply equipment for the plant and technical assistance to install the equipment and start the plant.

Russian state nuclear fuel company Tvel said the first depleted uranium defluorination facility at the site is the only one in Russia. The new facility will see the capacity of the processing plant double from 10,000 tonnes to 20,000 tonnes a year.

Defluorination technology makes it possible to separate hydrofluoric acid from depleted uranium resulting from the enrichment process, with a view to conditioning it in a solid and stable form. Depleted uranium can be recycled and used as fuel in nuclear power plants.

It is used for fabrication of mixed uranium-plutonium MOX fuel for the Russian BN-800 fast neutron reactor in Sverdlovsk Oblast, southwest Russia.