PROVENCE-ALPES-COTE-D’AZUR

V. TREATMENT OF WASTES

The Stel treats aqueous liquid wastes from Cadarache and the Fontenay and Grenoble Centers by the following procedures:

--For effluents contaminated by alpha emitters, a chemical treatment by precipitation followed by filtration. Sludges are coated in a matrix of cement and transported to INB 56 for storage. The filtrates that contain too many impurities to be released go to treatment two.

--For the filtrates from chemical treatment and beta gamma wastes that have a short period or are only weakly contaminated in alpha emitters, evaporation. The distillates are monitored and released into the Durance. The concentrates are coated in a cement matrix and transferred to Andra. The evaporator can treat 250 m3 of effluents each week.

The Stel receives and stores liquid non aqueous wastes awaiting treatment. 77 drums are stored in area 39 of building 321, for a total quantity of 8.5 m3 of organic effluents [Con i.00].

In 1998, DSIN authorized the effluent treatment station, which is old, to continue to be used until 2006 on condition that complementary safety arrangements are put into effect [DSIN 00].

The installation Agate (Atelier de gestion avancée et de traitement des effluents) will replace the equipment presently at the Stel, including the storage tanks.

Agate will be made of of two lines. The effluents that are the most heavily contaminated with alpha and/or beta gamma emitters will be decontaminated in the medium activity line before being treated in the low activity line:

--medium activity-“a chemical treatment with liquid-solid separation (filtration and ultrafiltration)” which will produce, according to the entering effluents, either alpha sludges or mixed sludges. The alpha sludges could be vitrified. The mixed sludges will be mixed with evaporator concentrates for solidification;

--low activity-a treatment by evaporation. The concentrates will be solidified by combining with cement or ceramics;

Treatment capacity has been estimated to be 2000 m3/yr in 2005.

The public inquiry is expected to take place in 2001. The medium activity line should enter into operation in 2005; the low activity line in 2007 [CEAD 99].

In “la vallée des cuves” (the valley of the tanks) at Cadarache are found at least 18 big tanks, all old. The CEA has emptied them because of their advanced age, and treated the effluents that they contained. The operation ended in 1999. The CEA is planning on new tanks as part of the Agate station [Con viii.99]..

The STD carries out all operations to prepare solid waste for storage at Andra’s CSA or, if the wastes are category B, in INB 56.

The equipment and treatments include:

--an incinerator for beta gamma wastes. The capacity is 10 kg/h. The ashes are packaged and stored for later treatment. The incinerator treated low-activity wastes from Saclay and Valrho that are suited to incineration as well as such wastes from Cadarache [CEAD 95].

--an installation for alpha decontamination in Building 312, classed as an ICPE. Here, wastes are changed from Category B to Category A. The effluents, which carry off the alpha contamination, are treated in the Stel. The installation includes a cell for dismantling [Défi vi.99].

V. B. Cedra (Conditionnement et entreposage de déchets radioactifs; Packaging and storage of radioactive wastes) (INB 164)

Purpose:  treatment and storage of long-lived low- and medium-activity radioactive wastes

Location:  an area of approximately 5 hectares

Operator:  CEA

Period of operation:  since May 2006

Nuclear materials:  wastes contaminated with plutonium, uranium, radium, etc.

Nominal capacity: for the first phase: 10,000 m3 of low-activity wastes; 2350 m3 of medium-activity wastes 

Actual storage: at the end of 2007, a total of 546.5 m3 of low-activity wastes and 73 m3 of medium-activity wastes 

Creation of Cedra was authorized by decree 2004-1043 of 4 October 2004 as an installation for the treatment of long-lived wastes of so-called low and medium activity (Category B)  "to concentrate their radioactivity and to decrease their volume" and for the storage of long-lived wastes of so-called law and medium activity.  The authorization states that Cedra will be constructed in four phases.  The ministers responsible for industry and for the environment must approve the operation of each phase before radioactive materials can enter the structures concerned (Articles 2 and 6).  April 20, 2006 the ministers approved operation of phase one of Cedra, the only phase constructed as of 2008.

 The four phases, as described in the authorization are

1)  construction of two buildings to store packages of low-activity material and a group of seven compartments with cells, which will eventually be part of a large building, to store packages of medium-activity material; annexes; offices; and a structure to provide electricity;

2)  construction of a building for treatment and of an intermediate building for the storage of low-activity packages, in particular wastes with radium, cement containers, "blocs sources," and packages awaiting treatment.  The treatment building will mainly contain units for measurement, sorting, incineration and decontamination; space for storing wastes in transit; and space for storing wastes resulting from treatment in Cedra;

3)  construction of buildings duplicating the storage buildings in 1) above;

4)  construction of a group of seven compartments with cells for the storage of medium-active wastes. (A result of phases 1), 3), and 4) will be one buildings with three groups of seven compartments each for medium-active wastes.) (Article 2)

The CEA plans to put phase two into operation in 2013 or 2014 [ASN 2007]

Cedra is designed in the long term to replace entirely or in part certain other installations at Cadarache, in particular the Station for the Treatment of Liquid Effluents and Solid Wastes (INB 37) (in regard to sorting, decontamination, incineration); the Park for Storing Radioactive Wastes (INB 56); and Pégase (INB 22). The first phase of Cedra is intended principally to hold waste removed from INB 56 and the current production of INB 37.

The authorization imposes various limitations.  They include restrictions on the levels of radioactivity that can be present in the various buildings and on quantities of plutonium.  Each seven compartments in the medium-activity building can hold no more than 60 kg of plutonium, the intermediate building can house no more than 2 kg, and each low-activity storage building can hold no more than 115 kg (Article 3).

At least, 80% by volume of the waste received for storage must come from installations at Cadarache. By 31 December 2030 all containers holding byproducts of fuel fabrication taken to Cedra from Pégase must have been removed from the intermediate building.  Waste in the low-activity building must be packaged with a binding substance ("liant").  Packages cannot be stored for longer than fifty years  (Article 5.17).

        One reason for the restrictions is presumably the long-drawn out process of authorization in which the public and non-governmental organizations played roles. An initial public inquiry took place in the autumn of 1997. The inquiry commission having expressed reserves, the CEA revised the dossier. The DSIN examined a new request for authorization in 2000 [DSIN 00].  The project was made the object of an inquiry by the French commission on public debate (CNDP) as the result of intervention by France Nature Environnement and Crii-Rad in September 1998. 

                                                                                                                               --Cedra revised 18 September 2008

.V. C. Chicade (INB 156)

Chicade is used for research and development on “low”- and medium-activity nuclear waste, in particular procedures for the treatment of liquid effluents, decontamination processes, packaging of solid wastes, and monitoring of packaged wastes by producers. The installation includes a pilot for packaging ashes (PICC). The provisional entry into service of this installation was authorized for 1998 [Con xi.98].

Chicade is the transformation and extension of an ICPE that already existed. The DSIN authorized the INB’s entry into service in 1997 [DSIN 97]. 

copyright © 2001-2007 Yggdrasil; copyright © 2008 EcoPerspectives

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