PROVENCE-ALPES-COTE-D’AZUR CENTRE DE CADARACHE (CEA-CADARACHE) IV. STORAGE OF FISSILE MATERIALS Magasin de matières fissiles de Cadarache (Cadarache Warehouse of Fissile Materials, MCMF) (INB 53) also called Magasin de stockage d’uranium enrichi et de plutonium. The CEA officially declared the existence of the warehouse in 1968, but it probably existed earlier [USNRC 88]. According to a 1994 report of the CEA, given that “laboratories [were] holding large quantities of unirradiated uranium (and plutonium), the CEA conducted an inventory and decided to put them together for storage in the warehouse” [CEAD 94]. The DSIN stated in 1997 that the warehouse contains “solid plutonium (from the fast neutron reactors and UNGG) and uranium that is solid or in solution” [DSIN 97].In 2000, DSIN asked the CEA "to examine conditions for closing MCMF within a short period of time, because of identified weaknesses in the earthquake resistance of a part of the installation, for which no reinforcement by means of civil engineering appeared to be possible." The CEA decided to construct a new building, MCMF2 which would go into operation in 2008. Meanwhile, the CEA intends to set up a new storage site and to evacuate the nuclear materials belonging to Cogéma [DSIN 00]. |