Experimental Research on Nuclear Waste Disposal (ERNW) Radioactive Waste Management in France Wednesday 19/05/2010 Alexis BOURDEAUX, France

Experimental Research on Nuclear Waste Disposal (ERNW)

Radioactive Waste Management in France

Wednesday 19/05/2010

Alexis BOURDEAUX, France

National framework - Overview of national policy

Radioactive waste management

• General principles set initially by the December 30th 1991 Waste Act (called as well Bataille law)

• Later modified by the 2006 Planning Act on the sustainable management of radioactive materials and waste

• National Plan for the management of radioactive materials and waste considered as an important tool to improve radioactive waste management issued at the beginning of 2007 notably based on the National Inventory of radioactive waste and recoverable materials issued by Andra

Decommissioning / dismantling

• NO notion of “clearance threshold”, i.e. the levels of radioactivity below which the waste from nuclear activity can be disposed of as current waste without specific radioactive supervision

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• National framework - Overview of national policy - Overview of relevant institutions

• Geographic location of waste - Main electronuclear sites - Main research sites - Main defence and nuclear deterrent forces sites - Main storage and disposal sites

• Waste classification

• Waste quantities

• Waste management strategies - CSTFA - CSFMA

• Waste management issues - LLW-LL repository - HLW and ILW-LL repository

National framework - Overview of relevant institutions

• ASN, the French Nuclear Safety Authority independent administrative body since 2006

• Andra, the National Radioactive Waste Management Agency, specific public agency since 1991 : responsibility for the long-term management of radioactive waste produced in France, operates waste repositories, defines the acceptance criteria for waste packages in these repositories and controls the quality of their production, in charge of designing, siting, and building new disposal facilities, keeps up to date the National inventory of radioactive waste and recoverable materials in France on a three-year basis

• CEA, the French Atomic Energy Commission, created in 1945 : R&D for the implementation of civilian nuclear activities (energy, industry, research and health) and to provide the necessary support to the development of National Defence activities (Nuclear deterrent forces) since 2006, R&D either as an actor of the 2006 Planning Act or as support to Andra programme for some specific topics

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Geographic location of waste – Main electronuclear sites

- 58 nuclear reactors under operation on 19 different sites- Front-end of the fuel cycle : 31- Back-end of the fuel cycle : 4- Waste treatment or maintenance centres: 8- R&D centres : 582- Medical activities: 264- Miscellaneous industrial

activities: 42- Research, production or

experimentation centres

of the nuclear deterrent forces: 11- Defence sites: 106- Storage and disposal facilities: 33

• At the end of 2007 : 1,121 registered sites on which radioactive waste was located

• More than 90% of the radioactivity from this waste concentrated on the sites of La Hague in the Manche district and of Marcoule in the Gard district







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Geographic location of waste – Main research sites





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Geographic location of wasteMain defence and nuclear deterrent forces sites





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Geographic location of wasteMain storage and disposal sites





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Waste classification

• Radiological risk can be assessed on the basis of two main parameters : the activity level and the half-life

• Distinction between : 1) very-short-lived waste, short-lived waste and long- lived waste ; 2) very-low-, low-, intermediate- or high-level waste 7







Waste quantities

• Volumes of radioactive waste, in storage or disposal facilities, at the end of 2007, in equivalent conditioned m3

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Waste quantities

• Distribution, at the end of 2007, of the volume of radioactive waste, by radioactive waste type, produced in France

• Distribution, at the end of 2007, of the level of radioactivity, by radioactive waste type, produced in France

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Waste quantities

• Forecast quantities of stocks of radioactive waste by the end of 2020 and 2030 including all sectors of activity

• Based, in particular, on the hypothesis of continued nuclear power generation and on specific scenarios for each of the other activity sectors responsible for producing radioactive waste

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Waste management strategies

Waste disposed of in special vaults excavated in a clay formation and protected by a synthetic membrane and, in the future, by a clay cover

• CSTFA very-low-level waste repository

- located at Morvilliers in the Aube district- commissioned in August 2003- expected operation duration : ~ 30 years + 30-year monitoring- superficy : 45 ha (of which 28,5 for storage)- overall capacity : 650,000 m3

- ~ 91,300 m3 of disposed waste (end of 2007)- operated by Andra- permanent staff : ~ 30 persons- siting & construction cost : 40M €- operational mean cost : 270 € / ton

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Disposal cell at the CSTFA

Aerial view of the CSTFA

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• CSFMA low and intermediate-level waste repository

- located at Soulaines-Dhuis in the Aube district- commissioned in January 1992- expected operation duration : ~ 60 years + 300-year monitoring- superficy : 95 ha (of which 30 for storage)- overall capacity : 1,000,000 m3

- environmentally monitoring measures : 15,000 / year- operated by Andra- permanent staff : ~ 150 persons

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Waste management issues at national level

• Low-level long-lived waste (LLW-LL) repository

- 70,000 m3 originating from chemical industry- 100,000 m3 of graphite waste with some (originating from the first generation of French graphite-gas reactors and being dismantled) - some 30,000 to 40,000 m3 more from disused sealed sources or bituminous waste

- disposal concepts based on shallow disposal within a low-permeability clay host-formation at a depth varying from some 15 meters excavated from surface if the formation is outcropping (radium-bearing waste) or down to 200 meters through an underground installation if the formation is deeper

(graphite waste)

- currently : report assessing the suitability of possible sites to host such a disposal facility and final selection with 3 municipalities (out of 40)

- disposal facility should be commissioned by 2019

- in the meantime, the situation of the existing storage facilities, in term of safety, is under consideration

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• Low-level long-lived waste (LLW-LL) repository

Map showing the suitable areas according to their geology to site a LL-LLW shallow repository

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• High-level waste (HLW) and intermediate-level long-lived waste (ILW-LL) repository

- Research and studies on this waste pursued according to the three following complementary venues :1) Partitioning and transmutation of long-lived radioactive elements, in relation with the studies on the new generations of nuclear reactors : assessment in 2012, prototype installation set in operation before 31 December 2020 French Atomic Energy Commission - CEA2) Reversible disposal in deep geological formations : authorization by 2015 and facility set in operation by 2025 Andra3) Storage : create new storage installations or modify existing ones to meet the needs, in particular in terms of capacity and lifespan at the latest in 2015

- The specific “retrievability / reversibility” issue : decided in 1998 when the creation and operation of an underground research laboratory at Bure (Meuse district) was authorized retrievality : possibility of retrieving waste packages from their disposal cells reversibility : flexibility in the repository construction and operation with the possibility of design evolution at all steps and notably includes the option of going backwards one or more steps, during the whole process of construction

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Schematic diagram of the installations at the future HLW/ILW-LL repository

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Thank you for your attention !

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Documents

Experimental Research on Nuclear Waste Disposal (ERNW) Radioactive Waste Management in France Wednesday 19/05/2010 Alexis BOURDEAUX, France