STRATDELA Special #9: TEUTATES and European Nuclear Deterrence

This special issue of the STRATDELA is devoted to the cooperation between the UK and France, two universally recognized nuclear weapon states and NATO allies, in the domain of nuclear weapons, specifically, in cooperation in terms of stockpile stewardship. The final part of this SPECIAL will be devoted to the political implications of such arrangement.

 What cooperation?

Essentially, we are talking about a resource pooling to facilitate non-explosive experiments that help London and Paris to ensure the capabilities of their nuclear warheads and to modernize those. I actually really like the way the British call this process - Nuclear Warhead Capability Sustainment Programme (NWCSP).

The heart of the project is the EPURE facility in France, near Dijon, at CEA Valduc facility although technical design works are done at AWE Aldermaston facility in the so-called TDC.

I will not dive deep in the technology part, but the EPURE is a very interesting facility.

Facilities and technologies

Strangely enough (not really), there are hardly any good pictures of this facility, and the French are very cautious about their nuclear weapons related infrastructure. CEA is important, you know.

Still, some shots are available in the wild, and I hope I will be able to share more later on. We also have wonderful work by the FAS team, who get their stuff directly from MAXAR.

It is also possible, that the photo of the EPURE construction as of 2019 was released during the reporting about how good CEA Valduc is for the local communities in terms of employment.

As of today, March 2024, it seems that the facility is completed, and being run jointly, although, probably, the experiments are being undertaken separately. Which does not preclude sharing of basic physics, of course.

What kind of experiments are being carried out at the EPURE? It is defined as a joint Radiographic/Hydrodynamics testing facility. Well, given what is written in relevant documents, the priorities lie in X-ray (and having tri-axis design of the facility will help to obtain, well, a lot of data) and hydrodynamic testing, with emphasis on absence of actual nuclear explosive processes, or, simply, any nuclear reaction with yield. The idea is to replace actual fissile material with other materials that have similar qualities – apart from, well, fission. This is a shared attitude of all nuclear weapon states in compliance with the CTBT. However, there’s a notable exception of hydronuclear testing, or, if I may, Essai hydronucléaire, which has fissile material, but the nuclear explosion is stopped before generation of any significant yield.

By the way, does anyone have any idea how FOGBANK à la française might be called?

For all such experiments it is crucial to have powerful accelerators, lasers and supercomputers – and CEA folks actually have had those even before EPURE. A system called Airix existed since early 1990s and was later transferred to this facility. Supercomputers are also continuously developed and upgraded, and, again, in other countries, including Russia, nuclear designers are at the forefront of supercomputing tech. Because, well, one needs to simulate stuff he or she can’t blow up. (Ping me if you believe that strategic dimension of supercomputers should be a topic for another STRATDELA special!).

Which warheads?

We do not know which UK warheads are actually in service (Mk4 Halbrook is probably the most well-known and relatively modern designator, as well as its upgrade called Mk4A), and we know even less about the French warheads.

However, what is known for sure is that currently the UK is pursuing a new warhead design, closely related to the American W93, which makes perfect sense given that both are to be delivered by Trident-II SLBM (if it still can be successfully launched by the Vanguard-class…just kidding). This might mean that eventually at least some information sharing will happen not only between AWE and CEA, but NNSA will also bring some expertise and data to the process. It might happen around next decade though.

In France, however, there might be at least a couple of different warhead designs currently in service: for M51 family of SLBMs (M51.3 variant might include something fancy) and for ASMP-A air-launched supersonic cruise missiles. What is even more interesting is whether warhead designs for future hypersonic weapons being developed within the scope of the V-MaX and ASN4G projects are already in works. If those are – I have little doubt that the EPURE facility is being used - or will be when time comes.

Implications of nuclear weapons cooperation

Now, let’s switch to politics. The bottom line is that within the TEUTATES project and with EPURE facility as its most material dimension we see nothing short of cooperation between two NPT nuclear weapons states and NATO allies in the field of nuclear weapon technology. Yes, France and the UK are hardly working on joint warhead designs, at least for now, but the cooperation is very real.

People who know me understand, that I am hardly a nuclear abolitionist (although of course ultimately nuclear disarmament should be a part of a better world, a much more peaceful international system), but it is hard to ignore that such level of nuclear weapons related cooperation is at odds with the spirit of nuclear non-proliferation and good faith actions to promote disarmament. Obviously, under current circumstances those are not the most popular words out there, with nuclear deterrence and compellence being in vogue.

However, the project started even before current crisis, and remains a good example of hedging policies and actions.

There is one more important factor: clearly, cooperation between Russia and China in the nuclear domain is being watched closely (and with some prejudice), so just imagine the reaction of, well, everyone, should Moscow and Beijing decide to establish a project like EPURE and sign a treaty similar to the TEUTATES.

Finally, the arrangements we are discussing today are even more important given all the talk about “Eurodeterrent” and other Atomwaffen for the continent. I believe there is a good chance that in less than a decade we will see growing support for SSBN operations between London and Paris for the sake of “pan-European” nuclear umbrella informally independent from Washington, as well as greater pooling of resources to ensure the feasibility of this umbrella from other countries. By resources I mean everything from money to materials, to industrial capacity, to scientific and engineering expertise and computing power.

EPURE is with us at least until 2060s, so, hopefully, we will learn more about the facility over the next several decades! Before we switch off, take a look at a very nice anniversary video about the TEUTATES.

P.S. As there’s a chance that some mechanical engineers from the UK are reading STRATDELA – “Exciting Opportunity in a World-Class Facility in the French Countryside” still available for a few days.

P.P.S. Traditionally, any feedback is most welcome. I am sure that there is a lot to add to this story and would be happy to do so!

Sources (some of those contain a lot of good stuff I simply wasn’t ready to copy-paste to this essay, as it would make zero sense):

https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Hydro_Treaty.pdf

https://www-teutates.cea.fr/uk/joint-facility-epure.html

https://thebulletin.org/premium/2023-07/nuclear-notebook-french-nuclear-weapons-2023/

https://www.nuclearinfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/01-NIS-NPT-presentation-on-Teutates-project-230413_0.pdf

https://indico.ijclab.in2p3.fr/event/5423/contributions/18250/attachments/14423/17794/Ch_VERMARE_EPURE_MCH3_Roscoff2019.pdf

https://www.bruxelles2.eu/en/2011/06/Franco-British-nuclear-cooperation-in-detail/

https://www-teutates.cea.fr/pdf/plaquette-epure-uk.pdf

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9074/CBP-9074.pdf

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/bourgogne-franche-comte/cea-valduc-pourvoyeur-emplois-cote-1751357.html

https://engineering-jobs.theiet.org/job/45569/mechanical-engineer

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9777/CBP-9777.pdf

https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-dam.cea.fr%2Fstatique%2Fzoom%2Fairix.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20160303205638/http://www.un.org/fr/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/glossary.shtml

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8941/CBP-8941.pdf

https://www-teutates.cea.fr/videos/cea-epure-10-ans-teutates-video.mp4