PROVENCE-ALPES-COTE-D’AZUR

VI. A. Le parc d’entreposage de déchets radioactifs (INB 56; Storage area for radioactive wastes)

--Eleven hangars. Hangar 1 stores radon- emitting lead sulfate from Le Bouchet, a part via the Centre de stockage de la Manche (CSM), among other wastes. Supplementary hangars store wastes of the categories called A and B, including, in 1999, 3784 drums of sludge from the Stel contaminated with plutonium and uranium, and in long-term storage. According to a press dossier, the eleven hangars store in total 450 m3 of category A waste, 6200 m3 of category B waste that is “weakly” irradiating, and 2700 m3 of low-level radioactive waste containing radium [CEAPr 18.xi.99]. The ashes from incineration are stored in drums in the area, in wait for Andra to accept a packaging method. In 1999, 268 drums of ashes were stored in these hangars [DSIN 99; Andra 99].

--Six covered trenches lined with concrete reinforced with asphalt. The CEA used the trenches especially for wastes coming from CFCa that were not suitable for treatment. The wastes included plutonium or uranium in pyrophoric form [see CDRPC 94]. At least one of the trenches has storage wells for high- and medium-activity irradiating waste. After compaction and repackaging, the CEA stored in trench 6, packages of irradiating waste from shafts at Fontenay and Saclay [CEAD 96]. According to Andra, the trenches in 1999 stored a total of 734 m3 of alpha, beta, and gamma waste. A press dossier indicates 800 m3 of category B irradiating waste [CEAP 18.xi.99].

--three pools, two of which contain old UNGG fuel. The recovery of experimental fuel for reconditioning in Star began in 1995 and should be finished around 2006 [CEAPr 18.xi.99].

--five unlined trenches used between 1969 and 1974 [CEAD 96] for wastes, some of which are contaminated with plutonium. The 3000 m3 of waste have been buried in vinyl sacks. The authorities are monitoring the groundwater underneath the trenches, which indicates that they have contaminated or can contaminate the Vindobonien aquifer, located at a depth of 6 to 12 meters [see CDRPC 94]. Following a pilot project, the recovery of the wastes began in 1999 and is to be completed in 2003 [Con viii.99].

--storage place for very low-level radioactive waste. According to the CEA’s Department of Wastes, Cadarache in December 1997 began to operate “a secure storage site for the CEA’s very weakly radioactive wastes (TFA),” and the DSIN indicates that the very weakly radioactive wastes of the CEA have been stored at Cadarache since 1998 in a dedicated storage site [DSIN 99]. Mme Rivasi indicates that “a 13,300 m3 hangar receives TFA wastes, except for scrap metal, from all the sites” and that the hangar is part of INB 56 [Rivasi 00]. Such a hangar is not clearly mentioned in the Inventory established by Andra’s Observatory. The Observatory remarks that Building 367 in INB 56 is used to store various very weakly radioactive wastes, including 98 tubs holding metal and 199 containers of earth and gravel [Andra 99].

--a monitored dump for wastes from the center, coming especially from dismantling. (We do not know if this dump is located within the INB.)

Storage of 2265 t of thorium in the form of crystallized nitrate produced by the treatment of uranothorianite at Le Bouchet. Cogéma owns the thorium nitrate. These thorium compounds "constitute nuclear materials without use," according to Andra [00] and do not enter into the waste inventory.  Also in the building are twenty-five 200 l casks of residues from treating rare earth minerals, which constitute waste.  These residues, containing thorium, come from the company Orflam-Plast (voir Pargny-sur-Saulx under Champagne-Ardennes) [Andra 00 and 06].

Since 1995, the building has stored 5120 t of residues from the treatment of monazite, treatment consisting in separating out rare earths at the La Rochelle plant, then the property of Rhône Poulenc. Rhône Poulenc obtained an authorization to store a maximum of 8000 t of residues for seven years at Cadarache. These residues are 1% thorium 228 and 232 and 0.08% uranium 238 with traces of radon 226 and 228 [Andra 99 and 06; Mer 27.viii.92].

A public inquiry concerning the prolongation of the storage period took place in 2000. The prefecture's decree of authorization which followed, limits the period of storage to 3 December 2009.  

VI.D. Pégase (INB 22)

The reactor Pégase was partially dismantled. In 1980, the pool and the basin were converted into a storage installation for radioactive waste.

The building has been mainly used as a storage place for old fuel awaiting reprocessing and for metallic containers holding byproducts from the fabrication of fuel at ATPu [CNE 98]. In 1999, according to Andra, a part of Pégase was used to store 2714 drums containing a total of around 65 kg of plutonium, 50 kg of natural uranium, and 232 kg of depleted uranium. The wastes come from the fabrication of Mox.

Cascad is an extension of Pégase authorized in 1989. It provides dry storage of irradiated fuel for a maximum period of fifty years. It is composed of a concrete structure containing 319 vertical metal shafts, in which fuel is stored in steel containers. The shafts are cooled by natural convection, but a ventilation and filtration system is available. The building was constructed to resist an earthquake of level IX on the MSK scale [SN xii.89].

Since 1996 Cascad has stored 46 t of fuel from Brennilis and less than 1.5 t of fuel from prototype naval reactors and submarines [Andra 96 and 99]. Fuel from Saclay’s Osiris reactor and from Marcoule’s Phénix reactor was to be stored there beginning in 2000 [CEAPr 18.xi.99]. Andra's 2002 inventory states that the irradiated fuel mentioned its 2000 inventory is not listed in the 2002 inventory, because this fuel is no longer considered to be waste.

According to Andra, the naval fuel that is already stored in Cacad cannot be reprocessed by presently available methods, and will probably be disposed of with high-activity, long-lived wastes [Andra 99]. The presence of krypton 85 in the shafts where the naval fuel is stored caused problems in 1996, and perhaps on several other occasions [Con.xii.97]. Les défis du CEA, Feb.-March 2004, states that the submarine fuel stored in Cascad is metal fuel.  The more recent oxide cores can be reprocessed, and discussions are underway in regard to their being reprocessed at La Hague.  

About 70 t of wastes from the operation of naval propulsion test reactors are awaiting packaging or definitive disposal [Andra 99].

                                                                                                                                                                                         last entered--September 28, 2007

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