PROVENCE-ALPES-COTE-D’AZUR

Purpose/type: plant for the production of lithium 6 for military ends and lithium 7 and borium for civilian use; storage of uranium

Operator: since 1976, Cogéma / Areva; formerly the CEA

Period of operation: 1961- ( A pilot unit was operated on the site in 1961; the establishment was officially created in 1962)

Wastes: contaminated with mercury

        The installations producing lithium stopped operating July 21, 2000, and the installations for producing borium in 2001.  As of 2004, Miramas was engaged in recycling lithium and dismantling the installations for the production of lithium and borium.  It also prepared and sold lithium 7 and manufactured aluminum/lithium alloy.  For these purposes, a chemical and metallurgical workshop, a laboratory, and auxiliary installations to produce fluids were in operation.  Dismantling is expected to be complete by 2008-2009 [Areva 04a].    

        In 2004 Cogéma transmitted to ASN a request for a definitive shutdown and dismantling of INB 134, a portion of the site that stored uranium compounds.  Initial cleansing and radiological mapping of the INB took place in 2005 [ASN 05].

LITHIUM 6 AND ITS COMPOUNDS

The process is secret, but, it seems Cogéma enriched lithium in lithium 6 by chemical exchange in columns, using an amalgam of lithium and an aqueous solution of lithine (LiOH). The amalgam (a lithium/mercury solution) was probably prepared by electrolysis using mercury as cathode. Cogéma used lithine enriched in lithium 6 for preparation of lithium metal, lithium hydride (LiH) and lithium deuteride (LiD). Lithium metal destined for the Célestin reactors at Marcoule leaves Miramas in the form of a lithium/aluminum alloy.

The production of lithium 6 took place chiefly in the isotope workshop (building 196) and the elaboration workshop (building 195). Isotopic separation took place in separate modules designated by the names Pam 1, Pam 2 . . .

The mercury risk, especially in the isotope workshop, was very big. During the years for which we have documentation leaks and contamination were frequent [CDRPC 94]. The CEA mentioned in its 1993 annual report: "Cogéma and the CEA have engaged in a program to develop a new process for the isotopic separation of lithium compatible with increasingly severe norms for environmental protection." Which indicates that the technology previously used was scarcely satisfying.

MERCURY WASTES

Atmospheric effluents

In 1995, according to Cogéma, the releases contained 12.1 kg of mercury, representing a major reduction since 1984 when they rose to 260 kg/yr of mercury [Miramas 84].

Liquid effluents

In 1995, 0.4 kg of mercury were released into the water [Cogéma 95], although the release was 10 kg/yr in 1984. The 90% reduction in the quantity of mercury released into the étang de Berre, was realized subsequent to a 1972 demand of the Comité interministériel d’action pour la nature et l’environnement [Miramas 84].

Half-solid, half-liquid effluents

Sludges from the cleaning of tanks and pipes, and cakes of residues from filters at the Stel amounted to about 60 drums per year. In 1984 the Société nouvelle d’affinage des métaux (Snam) of Lyon treated all the sludges. The Snam was to recover the mercury and to return it or sell it, and was to store on its site the slag and the treatment wastes [Miramas 84].

Solid wastes

In 1995, 5.9 t of mercury wastes were produced and stored on the site. In total, 58.8 t were stored there at the end of 1995 awaiting treatment [Cogéma 95]. In 1984, the solid wastes were composed of filter cartridges, cakes from the centrifuge at the Stel, resins, silver wool, suspect earth and/or concrete from dismantling, and graphite from the decomposer. The Snam treated these wastes. Other wastes were evacuated after local decontamination by means of hot water under pressure [Miramas 84].

OTHER WASTES

The other solid wastes included hydride of lithine that had not been used and was not recoverable, and perhaps lithine depleted in lithium 6. In the seventies, lithine was burned. The available documents do not mention whether Cogéma considered the lithine that is a byproduct of the enrichment of lithine 6 as a waste or if it used it for the production of lithium enriched in lithium 7 [CDRPC 94].

STORAGE OF URANIUM

In operation from at least 1980 through 2003, the storage center, INB 134, is authorized to hold up to 2000 t of uranium hexafluoride and "solid and stable compounds of natural or depleted uranium to the extent that space is available" [JO 19.xi.83]. It housed in 1995, 14,000 t of depleted uranium oxide (U3O8) and 1800 t of natural uranium uranates, concentrates from French or foreign mines [Cogéma 95]. The cubic green containers of U308 were in 1996 piled under a roof attached to the elaboration building.  They were shipped by rail to Pierrelatte in 2002 and 2003 [Areva 2004a].

                                                                                                         --Updated January 19, 2007                                                                                                                                                                                                        

RETURN TO PROVENCE-ALPES-COTE-D'AZUR