AQUITAINE CENTRE D’ETUDES SCIENTIFIQUES ET TECHNIQUES D’AQUITAINE (CENTER OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL STUDIES OF AQUITAINE, CESTA) Object/type: research and military production center Location: a 734-ha area in the middle of the natural regional park of the forest of Landes at LeBarp (Gironde) Operator: Direction des applications militaires Period of Operation: since 1965 Materials handled: uranium, thorium and, for a time, plutonium; in the future, deuterium and tritium In particular: will be the home of the megajoule laser The industrial architect of nuclear warheads, Cesta was created chiefly to militarize warheads for the strategic missiles. The CEA groups at Cesta "all the means, known as environmental, designed to test this very complex equipment, by simulating conditions of use on the ground and in space" [DAM v.88]. A major part of the work of the center concerns conventional equipment and materials. However radioactive substances have been and will be present. Assembly Around 1995 the Dam transferred from Ripault to Cesta the task of assembling non-pyrotechnical components of bombs around the pyrotechnical edifice. Cesta then assembled at Barp the M20 warheads. The role of Cesta today is not obvious. According to the Bulletin de la Dam, "The change to thermonuclear weapons has entailed. . . putting at the disposition of the armed forces heads that are completely closed and sealed . . . On the other hand, the assembly is carried out by the CEA at the Vaucluse and Ile Longue sites, where veritable "CEA centers" have been created, with the personnel responsible to the "production-implementation" service" [DAM v.88]. However, the adjunct director of Cesta explained in 1993 that the role of architect that Cesta plays "includes the conception, the qualification, and the assembly of weapons for the dissuasive force" [CCHSC 25.v.93]. It is likely then that Cesta personnel carry out the assembly at the Ile Longue. The Vaucluse site no longer hosts missiles. Cold firings? "Firings have taken place according to their power and their character, either at the center itself, or at the external test center. Such precautions are taken in regard to the pyrotechnical risk when radioactive substances are associated with explosives that the radiological risk can be considered to be contained within the pyrotechnical risk." [CCHSC 20.x.71]. We do not know if the tests that use radioactive substances have taken place at the center itself as well as at its experimentation center. Ligne d’intégration laser (Laser Integration Line, LIL) With eight laser beams, LIL is designed to demonstrate the validity of the technology that the laser megajoule will use (see below). LIL became operational in 2003 [défis vi-viii.2003]. Laser Mégajoule (Megajoule Laser, LMJ)—under development The laser will simulate thermonuclear explosions. A battery of 240 laser beams will heat a capsule containing deuterium and tritium to cause nuclear fusion. Deployment of its full power of 1.8 megajoules is expected to occur for the first time in 2012 [défi iv-v.07]. Waste According to the CEA, Cesta is one of four centers of the Dam that generates "little or no radioactive waste" [CEAD 94]. However, if radioactive firings have taken place there, they have released uranium. - Updated 1 August 2007 Copyright © Yggdrasil 2000-2007 |