Since the creation of Cogéma in 1976, the CEA has operated only a part of the site, the Marcoule section of its Centre d’études nucléaires de la vallée du Rhône (Cen Valrho).

Purpose: research on reprocessing and waste treatment; secondarily plutonium production

Installations: installations for reprocessing, vitrification, and fusion

Period of operation: 1962-1997

Raw materials: irradiated fuel and reprocessing wastes

The workshops were created to develop procedures for reprocessing and vitrification. They were originally located in a single building, building 211, which later underwent major renovations and to which other buildings were eventually added.

The last addition was construction of a link between a unit of APM, Tor, and UP1 in 1994. The connection allowed Tor to carry on the initial stages of reprocessing and to send the resulting radioactive solution to UP1for the later stages.

APM reprocessed in total (in tons of heavy metal) 2.5 t of PWR fuel with enriched uranium; 2.1 t of PWR-Mox; 5.1 t of fast neutron reactor fuel with enriched uranium; and 14.2 t of fast neutron reactor fuel-Mox. The workshop produced 2.7 t of plutonium [Bourgeois 96].

The vitrification process used at La Hague and at Marcoule was developed by the CEA at Marcoule. The pilot vitrification installations at Marcoule included Gulliver, the chain Vulcain, Piver 1, AVH/Prototype évolutif de vitrification (Evolving vitrification prototype, PEV), and perhaps Piver 2, a chain that was to enter into service in 1992 to replace Piver 1 [CEARa 1984; Andra 1993].

Piver 1, which solidified fission product solutions from the reprocessing of UNGG fuel, operated from 1969 to 1980. Dismantling of Piver 1 began in 1982 and was completed in 1991. The storage area associated with Piver is located some fifty meters from the site of the installation and is essentially a concrete trench with 32 shafts, containing in 1999, 290,000 TBq of glass and other waste from Vulcain and Piver [Andra 00].

The CEA developed at Marcoule a process for melting wastes from the decladding of fast neutron reactor and PWR fuel in zircaloy and in steel. The metal is melted by induction in a cold crucible with continuous drawing out of ingots.

The installations used for these studies included

--a laboratory , cell 73 of APM, put into service for radiactive material in 1988. It produced ingots by melting hulls from Phénix and from the German Obrigheim reactor;

--an installation destined to qualify the procedure at the industrial level. It was to be constructed in cell 404 of APM.

According to the CEA, the treatment of the off-gases posed problems, particularly the trapping of small solid particles, the trapping and packaging of tritium, and the trapping of cesium [CDRPC 94].

The CNE reported in 1999 that the technology for fusion in a cold crucible had made great progress and was ready to be transferred to [industrial] plants [CNE 99].

Building 211 and 214 are undergoing cleanup. Dismantling to level 3 is scheduled to start in 2004 and 2005 respectively and to end in 2015 and 2016 [CEAD 99].  In 1999, the CEA completed:

--rinsing the Tor chain "with process acid";

--putting into operation unit 489, which made possible the evacuation for treatment at La Hague of 26 containers of cladding waste from Mox and uranium oxide fuel;

--putting the unit for depositing effluents into operation which permitted the evacuation for treatment of 1130 liters of contaminated solvent to Cogéma at La Hague and 15,000 liters of effluents with americium to Cogéma at Marcoule.

According to Andra, dry storage cells in Building 211 (Cell 50, 7.26 m3) and Building 214 (Cell 406, 8.033 m3 and Cell 409, 5.6 m3) stored in 2000 containers holding decladding waste, expansion chambers, and technological waste. Characterization of the majority of this waste was underway, but the activity of the decladding waste in Cell 406 was estimated to be less than 50 TBq in alpha and 2 PBq in bêta gamma  [Andra 99, 00].

I.B. Atalante (Atelier Alpha et laboratoire pour les analyses de transuraniens et études de retraitement,

Alpha shop and laboratory for the analysis of transuranians and reprocessing studies)—under development

Purpose: research and development in regard to high level waste and reprocessing

Period of operation: 1992-

Substances manipulated: plutonium, uranium

Atalante is bringing together activities relating to high-level waste and reprocessing that have been divided among Grenoble, Fontenay-aux-Roses, and Valhro [DSIN 00]. 

Atalante is being constructed in two stages. Atalante 1 has been in operation since 1992, although as of 1996 it only functioned at 60% of its capacities [MiLi 23.ii.96].  In October 2000, the DSIN authorized the entry into operation of Atalante 1-DHA (high activity wastes) "The operation of that unit remains provisional, however, while waiting for the result of studies of the behavior of building DHA/CHA during an earthquake" [Con i.01].  The entirety of the equipment in Atalante 2 was not operational on July 25, 1999 as initially planned.  According to the Drire of Languedoc-Roussillon, "the year 2000 [was to] see the completion of work on the DRA and the operation of that part of the extension."  In December 2000, the DSIN authorized the use of radioactive material in the shielded analysis chain that equips unit 2-DRA (Development-reprocessing-anlayses).  In 1999 the CEA continued in Atalante "radioactive tests of advanced separation (new extracting molecules)", "the development of the study of pyrochemical procedures" for reprocessing, and the "dissolving of Mox fuel"  [CLIGard 27.vi.99].

I. C G1—shut down

Purpose/type: graphite-gas reactor designed for the production of military plutonium

Owner and operator: CEA

Period of operation: 1956-1968

Power: 38 MW thermal later carried to 42 MW thermal; produced in total 2 MW electric (but consumed 8 MW electric)

Fuel: 100 t of natural uranium metal

Moderator: 1200 t of graphite

G1 produced 125 kg of plutonium (at almost 10%). At an average burnup of 100-200 MWd/t, the plutonium would have been contained in about 625 to 1250 t of irradiated fuel [Albright 97].

According to the CEA, G1 has been dismantled to level 2 [CEAD 99].  According to Andra, the installation, in July 2000, was dismantled to level 2, with the exception of the chimney and certain filters [Andra 00]. The CEA is studying the possibility of dismantling G1 to level 3, but cannot do it without resolving the question of contaminated graphite [CEAD 94].

Wastes stored at G1 include: 450 t of metal that have been melted, control rods, 1200 t of graphite contaminated with cobalt 60,  and 500 drums of wastes characterized as very low activity (TFA) [Andra 00].

A temporary installation known as "Dégainage G1" [Cladding Removal G1] was used in 1959 to prepare irradiated G1 fuel for reprocessing. It was abandoned in 1960, in favor of a new, "Dégainage G2 G3," but was afterwards used to store cladding [CDRPC 94].  (See below Mar-400 in the description of G2-G3.)

Purpose: development of the RNR line; production of plutonium and secondarily of electricity; today, research on waste management

Owner: CEA (80%) and EDF (20%)

Operator: CEA

Period of operation: since 1973

Power: 563 MW thermal. A turboalternater group can reach 250 MW electric

Fuel: various (cores of enriched uranium and Mox with various levels of plutonium [18%, 25%])

Cover: depleted uranium

Coolant: sodium—800 t in the main tank and also sodium in three secondary circuits

Phénix had produced, at the end of 1995, about 1150 kg of plutonium of "military" quality in its covers. It is possible that a part of the plutonium was used for civilian purposes [Albright 97].

The history of Phénix has been punctuated by shutdowns, chiefly, until 1989, because of leaks and "small" fires of sodium. Between September 1990 and the end of 1994 the breeder did not operate, except for several days of tests. The initial reason was a series of automatic shutdowns because of abnormal drops in the reactivity in the core in August-September 1989 and September 1990.  Researchers have never found the cause of the reductions in reactivity.

December 21, 1994, the DSIN authorized resumption of operations to complete the 49th cycle, which terminated April 7, 1995. The 50th cycle was not immediately authorized.  The CEA evaluated the reactor and in 1996 the director of Cen Valrho announced that Phénix was to undergo "a total renewal," with an investment of 100 MF over three years [MiLi 23.ii.96].

On 9 April 1998, following the renovation, DSIN authorized the reactor's restart on condition that after a single operating cycle of six to eight months, the temporary shutdown of the reactor scheduled for the decennial testing and visits be used to examine the internal structures of the reactor and to strengthen its capacity to resist earthquakes. Power would be limited to 350 MWth, because only two of the three secondary loops would be in service. Phénix began its 50th cycle of operation 25 May 1998. The cycle was terminated in mid-November of that year, because of the discovery of an internal leak in one of the intermediate exchangers.

Checkups revealed faults in e secondary circuits--in particular cracks in the steam generators--due to the steel alloy's resisting aging less well than had been foreseen.  As of mid-2001, Phénix was still in the midst of a renovation and examination phase that was expected to end in 2001 [DSIN 00].  The CEA wanted to keep  Phénix in operation into 2004 in order to carry out experimentation on the transmutation of the long-lived isotopes in radioactive waste, experimentation that the CEA stated that the radioactive waste law of 1991 required [Con xi.98, iii.99, and iv.99]. Much of the work was being done within the framework of the programs Capra  (plutonium) and Spin (transmutation of actinides) [RGN x-xi.99]. 

June 5, 2003, after an outage of five years, DSIN authorized Phénix to begin a 51st cycle of operation.  The reactor was authorized to operate at two thirds of its nominal power for up to six more cycles, which will allow it to operate into 2009 [DSIN Web site 3.vii.03 ASN 05].

One of the experiments that it will carry out during its last two years is Futurix FTA designed to show that transmuting fuel containing high concentrations of actinides is technically feasible.  In October 2006 it received for irradiation four fuel pins containing actinides from the US Department of Energy, two from the CEA, and two from the European Commission's Institute for Transuranics.  They are to be loaded into the reactor inside an experimental device during a scheduled shutdown in May, 2007 [NucF 9.x.06].

                                                                                                                    --updated January 31, 2007

I.E. Waste treatment development

Iris, a nonradioactive pilot for the incinerators of alpha waste that have been constructed at Valduc and at the Melox factory, began operation in 1987. It operates in a continuous, two-stage process [CNE 99]. The incinerator was designed for 4 kg/hr but can function at up to 7 to 10 kg/h [Clef no. 33.96]. It was still in operation in 1998, and apparently was needed in 1999 to conduct research aimed at improving the Valduc incinerator and validating the technological choices for the incinerator in Cedra at Cadarache [CNE 99]. Iris is the successor to an incinerator intended for wastes normally contaminated in alpha beta, and gamma, which began operation in 1963, and to another pilot intended for wastes that were rich in alpha emitters, that went into service in 1972 [CDRPC 94].

The CEA with the help of the Aciéries du Haut-Languedoc (AHL), put into operation in 1992 an electric arc furnace, Infante, located within the G2 and G3 building. The nominal capacity was 12.5 t/d, about 5000 t/yr [LeMo 19.ix.92].

The furnace melted more than 5000 t of metal, from G2 and G3, from Rapsodie, and from elsewhere [Feaugas 94]. The CEA had regrouped at Marcoule, to be melted, suspect scrap metal from its civilian centers. The melted metal was shaped into ingots, blocs, or containers which are stored or reused in CEA centers [CEAD 94; Andra 99].

The fusion produced iron (93.25% by weight, in 1994) and solid wastes (6.75%) [Feaugas 94]. The solid wastes include the dust from filters (40%), the slag taken directly from the melted metal (41%), and the slag recovered during the cleaning of the furnace (19%).

The dust was remelted with the metal, and other wastes were stored [CEARa 94]. Of the cesium-137, 96.4% was in the dusts and 3.6% in the slag; of the cobalt 60, 90.5% was in the iron, 7.2% in the slag, and 2.3% in the dust [Feaugas 94]. In other words, in terms of cobalt-60, the fusion decontaminated the scrap metal very little. Was the cesium trapped entirely in the solid waste?

The CEA has shut down the furnace and is sending or planning to send any metal to be melted to the melting unit at Centraco.

ATENA

The Atena project is to meet the need for a central installation for the treatment of wastes of radioctive sodium (Na) resulting from the CEA's research and development.  It will be composed of a storage module, module composed of  treatment workshops, and a module for the transformation of the sodium into a final waste.

CASCAD 2--under development

According to a CEA document presented to a meeting of the Gard CLI, the CEA is preparing a provisional safety report for Cascad 2, a facility for the storage of  irradiated fuel at Marcoule.

                                                                                                       --updated July 3, 2003