ILE DE FRANCE-PETITE COURONNE BONNEUIL-SUR-MARNE -- shut down Purpose: fuel production Type: factory and laboratories Location: Bonneuil-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne), near Créteil Operator: Cerca Period of operation: 1957-1992 Raw materials: uranium At Bonneuil, Cerca in 1957 installed research laboratories and a pilot workshop where the company studied the production of uranium/aluminum fuel [RGN xi-xii.85]. In 1961 Cerca began to manufacture UNGG fuel. The following year, it created an industrial site at Romans-sur-Isère. It has not handled fissile material at that site since 1992 [Andra 99], although as of 1995 it still did subcontracted mechanical work. Cerca used depleted uranium for civilian and military needs. It is possible that a part of the work was done at Cerca-Bonneuil, but large-scale projects were carried out at Romans. Cerca-Bonneuil was the destination of at least three importations of depleted uranium from the United States (authorization XUO8689 from the USNRC signed 19 December 1989, authorization XSOU8700 signed 13 November 1990, and authorization SOU 8703 signed 1 February 1991). The first involved 65 kg of an alloy of depleted uranium and titanium in the form of thin cylinders exported by Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee and intended for tests of mechanical properties in the framework of an international research and development project. The second involved 4 t of depleted UF4 intended to be converted at Malvési and used by Cerca “ for metallurgical research, nonnuclear military uses,” presumably for tank armor and for kinetic weapons. The third involved 75 t of depleted uranium intended “for the fabrication of munitions.” Actually these 75 t were transmitted to another company, Sicn [Bernard 95], probably because Sicn had already taken on activities in the area of depleted uranium formerly carried out by Cerca. In 1995 Cerca decided to dismantle its industrial installations. By the end of 2000, the industrial dismantling and cleansing had been completed, and 150 tons of waste said to be of very low activity had been sent to Cadarache. Contamination by uranium 238 that had been discovered at certain points on the slab and walls had been evaluated [Andra 00]. -Updated July 9, 2001 | |||