MIDI-PYRENEES Purpose : tests and military experimentationLocation: place called Bedes, commune of Gramat (Lot) Operator: Erca (Etablissement technique central de l’armement) de la DGA Materials handled: depleted uranium Wastes: contaminated with depleted uranium Comments: tests of weapons equipment (projectiles, armor) of depleted uranium
Here research on the effects and the hardening of nuclear weapons are carried out; and projectiles of depleted uranium are or were fired. In 1992 French military researchers created an installation, named Athena, to study the impact of projectiles of depleted uranium on targets at a speed superior to 2500 meters per second. According to Bruno Barrillot, the munitions used were volatilized at the moment of impact and "the aerosols thus produced were contaminated with tons of material" [Obsan, #5, 00]. The 1995 inventory of Andra presents these materials. Among the wastes at the site as of April 1998 were 758 kg of plaques and cylinders contaminated with depleted uranium and 40kg of projectiles "recovered after firing or never fired," also contaminated with depleted uranium [Andra 98]. Andra’s 2000 inventory mentions sources, lightning rods, and technological wastes (5 GBq), and Socatri at Bollène treated and in 2000 stored 32 t of solid TFA wastes and 295.2 t of TFA steel for the Gramat center. The 32 t of waste, packaged in drums, was awaiting expedition to Andra. The final disposition of the steel was still under study [Andra 00]. .
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