French FBR (Fast Breeder Reactor) studies reached the top of the world in the middle of 1970s, although France had begun FBR research following the U.S., the U.K. and the Soviet Union. This paper demonstrates a new finding about collaboration between France and the U.S. in the beginning of French FBR research, based on documents that previous studies didn’t quote.
Georges Vendryes named the father of FBR told at the author’s interview that during the program of developing the first French experimental FBR Rapsodie which went in critical in January 1967, collaboration with the U.S. played an important role. It was unexpected fact if both countries developed FBR only for military purpose.
According to the classified catalogue of CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique) Archives, it includes documents which certify cooperation between France and the U.S. Although most of them are confidential that will not be to the public till 2023 unfortunately, there are some records indicating the relationship between APDA(Atomic Power Development Association) and CEA for example, among materials that we can examine since 1993. With these documents, this paper shows how France and the U.S. collaborated in detail and that this cooperation helped CEA to develop the first French FBR Rapsodie．