Georges Besse II, Tricastin
Georges Besse II, Tricastin is a enrichment facility operated by Orano in France. It has a capacity of 7,500 tSWU/yr as of 2025, about 11% of world enrichment capacity.
France's only enrichment plant, a centrifuge facility that replaced the vastly more power-hungry Georges Besse I gaseous diffusion plant. The old plant consumed roughly 3% of French electricity and was fed by three dedicated reactors at Tricastin; the centrifuge replacement uses about 2% as much energy per SWU.
| Stage | Enrichment |
|---|---|
| Operator | Orano |
| Country | France |
| Capacity | 7,500tSWU/yr |
| Figure applies to | 2025 |
| Note on the figure | Orano has announced expansion to 10,000 tSWU/yr by 2030. |
| Status | operating |
| Commissioned | 2011 |
| Coordinates | 44.3300, 4.7200 |
This facility is about 11% of world enrichment capacity (68,076 tSWU/yr, 2025).
Orano also operates:
- Malvési and Philippe Coste (Tricastin) (conversion)
- Tricastin deconversion (W plant) (deconversion)
- Project IKE, Oak Ridge (enrichment)
- Melox, Marcoule (fabrication)
- Moinkum and Tortkuduk (KATCO) (mining)
- Somaïr (Arlit) (mining)
- La Hague (reprocessing)
Other enrichment facilities
At the market indicator. 7,500 tSWU/yr of nameplate capacity, valued at US$ 200.00 per SWU spot, comes to roughly US$ 1.50 billion a year, or US$ 1.37 billion at the long-term indicator. Treat both as scale, not revenue: most volume moves under contracts signed years earlier at prices neither figure reflects, and nothing here is netted against the cost of producing it. The indicators, and forty years of history behind them, are on fuel market prices.
Sources
- World Nuclear Association, Uranium Enrichment · retrieved 2026-09-06
How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data