ILE DE FRANCE-PETITE COURONNE CENTRE D’ETUDES DE LIMEIL-BREVANNES ET VALENTON -- shut down Purpose/type: military development and research center Location: a 112.5 ha area 20 km from Paris, plus a neighboring area bought around 1984 at Limeil-Brévannes and Valenton (Val-de-Marne) Operator: Direction des application militaires Period of operation: 1955-1999 Materials handled: uranium?, deuterium, tritium In 1995 the Direction des études et fabrications d’armements installed its atomic section at the site of a former artillery battery at Limeil-Brévannes. The installation was attached to the CEA in 1960. Limeil was devoted essentially "to theoretical research on nuclear charges and on the development of theoretical and experimental means necessary for these studies (lasers and computers)" [Barrillot 91]. By means of lasers, the center studied the interactions of lasers and materials, including inertial confinement fusion of great military interest. Equipment at the center included powerful computers and lasers of great power, Phébus in particular, inaugurated in 1985. The Center used deuterium and tritium for the lasers’ targets. The center’s agents handled radioelements, particularly tritium, in a laboratory for targets [Limeil 77]. In 1996 the government announced that the center would be permanently shutdown. As of January 1998 only a portion of the laser department was to remain in operation to allow the execution of an experimental program planned for the laser Phébus into 1999 [CEARa 97]. WASTES Limeil is one of the four centers of the Dam that, according to the CEA, generated "little or no radioactive waste" [CEAD 94]. The correct word would be "little" rather than "no." The 1977 annual report of the Limeil CHS mentions under "Laboratory for dosimetry and monitoring," "monitoring of alpha, beta contamination" and "control of surface contamination by tritium." |