The Marcoule site is one of the oldest in France, and played a significant role in the development of the French nuclear and thermonuclear deterrents.
It opened in 1956 - well after the US began the era of nuclear armaments, at a time when France was among the nations looking to gain their own seat at the nuclear table.
The Marcoule site dates back the dawn of the French nuclear age
The earliest reactors generated first data and then plutonium for the first successful French test in 1960.
Other defence-oriented reactors followed - and as the world contemplated a new generation of much bigger bombs with much bigger destructive capacity, a new reactor at Marcoule was built to produce tritium, fuel for hydrogen (or thermonuclear) weapons.
On the civilian side, the site also housed the experimental Phenix fast-breeeder reactor, and - since 1995 - it has combined fissile uranium and plutonium into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, which can be used in nuclear power stations.
However, like other sites such as the UK's Sellafield that date from the dawn of the nuclear age, Marcoule's principal activity these days is cleaning itself up.
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