ILE DE FRANCE-PETITE COURONNE LIMEIL-SODERN Purpose/type: factory for the manufacture of electronic equipment including neutron generators Location: Limeil-Brévannes (Val-de-Marne) Operator: Société anonyme d’études et de réalisations nucléaires (Sodern) Period of operation: since 1962 Raw materials: tritium, deuterium, and perhaps depleted uranium Sodern develops and manufactures neutron sources for civilian and military use and other electronic equipment. Military sources set off the fission reaction in bombs and experimental devices by irradiating the fissile material with a neutron flux. The neutron source technology is based on “a tube with gas containing tritium and deuterium.” The deuterium is “ionized and accelerated by an intense electric field” and strikes a tritiated target. “The deuterium and tritium fusion reaction furnishes neutrons with great energy” [Barillot 91]. As of March 1999, 3.24 Bq of tritiated waste awaited evacuation to Valduc. It is probable that Sodern, like Valduc, releases gaseous tritium. |