LIMOUSIN

BESSINES, SITE INDUSTRIEL DE

Object: production of uranium
Type: treatment plant, mine, waste dump, and laboratories
Location: on a 141 ha site at Bessines-sur-Gartempe (Haute-Vienne) north of Limoges
Operator: Cogéma and its subsidiary Simo
Period of operation: since 1958 (plant 1958-1993)
Raw materials: uranium ore
Nominal capacity: plant, 1500 t/yr of uranium
Actual production: plant, more than 27,000 t of uranium in total


The principal facilities and areas are/were:

I. Simo mill
II. Entreposage d'uranium appauvri
III. Lavaugrasse
IV. Le Brugeaud
V. Zone Sepa

I. ORE TREATMENT PLANT—shut down
SIMO PLANT

Simo operated a treatment plant between 1958 and 1993. By the end of 1993, the company had produced more than 27,000 t of uranium in the form of ammonium diuranate with 75% uranium. Production went from 950,000 t of ore in 1981 to 115,000 t in 1993. The plant treated in total more than 15 million t of ore [Cogéma 94a].

The tailings were deposited on the sites of Lavaugrasse and of Le Brugeaud until 1987 and after 1987, on the sites of Montmassacrot and Bellezane. In addition, by the end of 1990, 1,134,000 t of coarser sand obtained by centrifugation had been used for the hydraulic filling of unspecified underground mines [Cogéma 91a].

Simo released liquid effluents from the plant into the Gartempe, after treatment with barium chloride and decantation [Pradel 82; InfoU iii-iv.92]. The contamination of the Gartempe below Simo's releases was evident in 1996 [Crii-Rad 94b].

The plant has been dismantled.

II. ENTREPOSAGE D'OXYDE D'URANIUM APPAUVRI (Storage facilities for uranium oxide)

Cogéma constructed storage facilities for U3O8 from usine W at Pierrelatte on an 8-ha area where static leaching formerly took place, probably the Croix de Breuil, from which the tailings have been removed. Cogéma began moving waste to the facilities in late 1998. Cogéma had already constructed one warehouse and will construct a total of twelve on an as needed basis. The authorization covers a total of 199,900 t of U308 and is valid for twenty years. 

According to Cogéma's request for the authorization, "the maximum rate of reception will be 2000 t of oxide per month, with the annual quantity depending on the production of usine W." The U308 will be taken out of storage and sent back to Pierrelatte, "when the feeding of the enrichment plant requires it" [Cogéma 94a]. Transportation is by train.

A decision of Dec. 20, 1995, by the prefecture authorized Cogéma to construct the facility.  In February 1996, an association for the protection of the environment, had filed a request for annulment of the authorization on the grounds that the oxide is final waste and that the procedure that Cogéma followed to gain the authorization was therefore inappropriate. An administrative tribunal in Bordeaux annulled Cogéma's authorization in July 1998; but the appeals court reversed its decision in November 1998 [NucF 27.vii.88; 28.xii.98]. In July 1999, however, the minister of the environment declared that "The public authorities now consider that the materials in question . . . constitute a final waste."  Therefore the minister asked the Conseil d'Etat to annul the decision of the appeals court and the prefect's decree authorizing the storage. May 23, 2001, the Conseil d'Etat refused to annul the decision of the appeals court. The Conseil d'Etat, like the appeals court, considers that the depleted  U308 is not a final waste.

By May 2001, Cogéma had constructed five buildings (twelve are planned) and stored 32,000 tons of U308 [Diehl Web 01]


III. LAVAUGRASSE --shut down

A dump for tailings was sited in a 25 ha basin made in the side of a hill by means of a dike constructed with the coarsest tailings. The height of the sludge was about 30 m. The site was not classified according to the regulations—it should be an INB [InfoU iii-iv.92].

The basin received tailings from

--Simo plant, stored between 1958 and 1977, 5,678,000 t (141.5 TBq of radium 226)

--Le Bouchet plant (Essonne), transported between 1973 and 1978, 3500 t (less than 1 TBq of radium 226). Le Bouchet treated the rich ore.

The activity of the radium 226 and thorium 230 equals 285 TBq. In 1993, the Crii-Rad took 10 samples of tailings and decantation sludges in the basin of Lavaugrasse, at Bellezane, and on le Brugeaud: each had a mass activity of more than 100,000 Bq/kg [Crii-Rad 94b].

Cogéma commenced remediation in 1994. To cover the tailings in the basin, Cogéma has imported all the residues of heap leaching at la Croix de Breuil, 554,000 t, and a portion of the residues of heap leaching stored in the slope of waste rock at Brugeaud, 1,253,000 t, for a total of 1,807,000 t of added residues containing 3.6 TBq of radium 226. Reshaping of the site was underway in February 1999 [Andra 99].

IV. LE BRUGEAUD --shut down

Former mine, leaching installations, and waste dump. The site has not been classified according to the regulations, as it should be an INB. 

For more information 

V. ZONE SEPA (SERVICE D'ÉTUDES DE PROCÉDÉS ET ANALYSES)

The service began operation at Bessines in 1980 to establish procedures for treating ore and using industrial byproducts [Cogéma 93].

It has three main sections: laboratoire d'essais (testing laboratory), laboratoire d'analyses (laboratory for analyses), and the pilote industriel (industrial pilot). In recent years its work has centered on four markets: uranium mining (perfection of methods of mining; technical support for the remediation of mining sites); the treatment of gold; the chemistry of the uranium chain (testing and improving procedures employed in Cogéma's plants); environmental protection (remediation of sites, treatment of wastes). Sepa is licensed to handle natural and depleted uranium, but not enriched uranium [Comag. no.60.viii-x.96].

A collection of uranium ore and rare earth, not treated by the Le Bouchet plant, was stored on the site in 1996. We do not know what happened to these minerals. Andra stated that they might be treated at the Jouac plant. A decree of December 20,1995, stipulated the evacuation of all these products [Andra 96].

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