MIDI-PYRENEES

BERTHOLENE -- shut down

The underground mining took place between 1981 and 1992; the exploitation on the surface between 1981 and 1994 [InfoU iii-iv.92]. The site produced 800 t of uranium in all. The production in 93/94 was 65 t/yr [InfoU vii-viii.94]. The ore contained on average 0.15% uranium. According to Andra, part of the production was sent directly to the plants of Simo at Bessines (Haute-Vienne) and Scumra at St-Pierre (Cantal). Part was pre-treated on the site .

The installation was used from 1985 to 1994. The ore was treated by leaching in stalls on the surface of the mine. The uranium, trapped in containers of resin, was transported to reprocessing plants in Jouac (Haute-Vienne) and Saint-Pierre (Cantal) [Andra 1999].

Production amounted to 40 t/yr of uranium metal contained in the concentrates [Bugarel 86]. The installation treated 475,915 t in total [Andra 99] .

The site stocks 475,915 dry tons of tails containing 613 t of uranium. The activity of the 475,915 t is 7.57 TBq in radium 226. The tailings are in a basin in the valley of Balaures (the brook has been turned aside), behind a dike that was only a pile of waste rock and waste from the mine but is now being “reshaped.” The tailings are covered with waste rock.  In 1999 the dike was undergoing remodeling [Andra 99].  In 2000, the first phase of remodeling had been completed and work was continuing [Andra 00].

The liquid residues from the containers, were treated--the radium made insoluble and neutralized --and then poured onto the tailings dump [InfoU iii-iv.92]. “The bottom [of the basin] and of the dike not having been made tight, the main problem [at the site as of 1993 was] that of the contamination of underground water” [InfoU i.ii.93].  In 2000, water was still being treated before release.  The sludges were transported to Jouac for recovery of the uranium [Andra 00].  

Purpose : tests and military experimentation

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]. .

Purpose: production of electricity