ILE DE FRANCE-GRANDE COURONNE -- shut downPupose/type: pilot factory for pastilles Location: Orsay (Essonne) Operator: Compagnie industrielle des céramiques électroniques (Cice) (company in the CSF group) and then the Compagnie industrielle des combustibles atomiques frittés (Cicaf) Period of operation: 1958-1965. In 1965 the work was transferred to Bollène Raw materials: essentially natural or low-enriched uranium (1 to 1.46%) in the form of oxide powder Nominal capacity: 25 t/yr foreseen in 1959 According to one source, the installation was constructed in the CSF buildings (Thomson-CSF since 1967) [CEAInf 82]. However, the Lallement report indicates only that that plant was located “on a site at Corbeville, belonging to the Société Civile de la Ferme de Corbeville (SCFC).” The pilot fabricated pastilles of uranium oxide, for EL4 in particular, and bars of uranium carbide [CEARa 60]. DISMANTLING “At the request of Cen Saclay’s Department of Metallurgy, it was decided to try complete decontamination.” Saclay took care of the decontamination. The SPR “decontaminated and sold as scrap metal 42,950 tonnes of equipment”, decontaminated 4560 m2 of ceilings, walls, floors; on the exterior, scraped the earth to a depth of several centimeters and packaged the earth and rubble in 934 200-l drums of mixed waste with mass activity less than 74 bq/kg. . . . It was buried in drums in three trenches at Orme des Merisiers (Saclay). The equipment used was sent to Bollène. The operation ended in 1967 [Lallement 91]. |