Nuclear subs to nowhere ???, page-257

" The French I believe are going crazy losing the sub deal with Australia as technically they aren't up to scratch and no other country will buy subs from them going forward destroying the multi billion export business for them."

If one were to believe dutton ( sky this morning),it's the alp who put the kibosh on a french nuke sub, because their nuke core, only has a 10 year life, while the yanks and poms is 40 plus years.

However, the enrichment level for newer French naval fuel has been dropped to 7.5% U-235, the fuel being known as 'Caramel', originally developed for research reactors and providing the possibility for greater fuel density, so helping to minimize the increased size of an LEU-fuelled core. It needs to be changed every ten years or so, but avoids the need for a specific military enrichment line, and some reactors will be smaller versions of those on the Charles de Gaulle. In 2006 the Defence Ministry announced that Barracuda class submarines would use fuel with "civilian enrichment, identical to that of EdF power plants," about 5% enriched, and certainly marks a major change there.


Raider