Usine Nucléaire

The extensive complex of this nuclear research center at Marcoule, where 2,200 people are employed, is situated right by the river, the water of which is used for cooling the reactors. The principal task of the center is, however, not the production of electrical energy but nuclear research and the obtaining of radio- active substances for medicine, science and industry, of tritium for military purposes and of nuclear fuel (plutonium) for power stations. For this purpose the reactor "Phénix", the first fast breeder in the world, on the edge of the area, was started up in 1973. In Marcoule the fuels from French and Spanish gas-graphite reactors are also reprocessed.