BASSE-NORMANDIE- LOWER NORMANDY Purpose : construction of shipsType: arsenalLocation : on the edge of the English Channel but in the middle of the city of Cherbourg (Manche)Operator : Direction des constructions navales (Division of Naval Construction , DCN)Materials manipulated : plutonium, uranium, tritiumThe arsenal has built the hulls of the nuclear-missile-launching submarines (SNLE) and nuclear-propelled attack submarines (SNA); has carried out the refurbishment of Le Tonnant and Le Terrible; and dismantled the SNLE retired from service. A draft emergency intervention plan for Cherbourg, mailed, in May 1986 to Didier Anger, regional counselor for Basse-Normandie, and cited by him, notes that risks at Cherbourg could "come from two different installations: --nuclear reactors adapted to naval propulsion; --associated installations on land located in the north-east part of the Arsenal (Zone of Homet) which includes workshops, facilities for storing new or irradiated fuel (pool), facilities for storing liquid and gaseous effluents" [Anger 94]. The zone of Homet is an industrial ensemble constructed around the great basin of Homet. To allow the construction of new generation SNLE (NG) at Cherbourg, the DCN constructed new naves, including the workshop "Construction assembly" for completion of the submarines. It also made a platform for putting the submarines into water and carried out the dragging of the military port [Barrillot 99]. Technicatome did the studies on dismantling the nuclear propulsion reactors. The Cherbourg DCN is responsible for carrying out the dismantling. Le Redoutable returned to Cherbourg in October 1991. During an initial work period of almost two years, the DCN disembarked the core and stored it in the pool of the reactor workshop, dismantled the reactor to level II, separated the portion of the submarine containing the reactor from the rest of the submarine, made it tight, and placed it under shelter, on an open area of the arsenal. The area had been prepared to receive ten reactor sections. The statute of "nuclear installation" cannot be withdrawn while the radioactivity of the reactor is superior to 1000 Curies. It does not reach that level for more than ten years. Thus after about fifteen years, a second period of work will take place. Dismantling to level III will be carried out; and the waste turned over to Andra or, following the recommendations of the European Economic Commission, returned to the public domain [Flot v-vi.93; STXN 93]. Le Terrible, Le Foudroyant, and Le Tonnant were retired from service in 1996, in 1997, and in 1999 respectively; and they are undergoing the same operations as Le Redoutable. In 1999 the reactors of Le Foudroyant and of Le Tonnant were declassed to level 1 [Barrillot 99]. According to Didier Anger, "near-confidential authorizations for emissions exist: for liquids in the 111 billion becquerels for bêta, gamma apart from tritium and 370 billion for tritium per year, and during what are called normal operations" [Comba viii.95].
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