SOCIETE AUXILIAIRE DE TRICASTIN (SOCATRI)

Localisation: Bollène (Vaucluse)

Surface area: 19.6 ha (about 46 acres)

Operator: Socatri, 100% subsidiary of Eurodif, which became a subsidiary of Areva NC

Period of operation: since the 1970s

Nuclear materials: uranium

This installation, located immediately south of the Eurodif plant, was constructed to carry out treatment of surfaces, in particular coating with nickel, and the assembly of coated parts for Eurodif.  A gradual conversion of the installations allowed Socatri to diversify its activities, first by the creation of a unit capable of assuming necessary maintenance operations for the Eurodif plant, and then by carrying out other activities oriented to additional clients including Cogéma, the CEA, Andra, and EDF.  It recovers uranium from solutions contaminated with that element, in particular; but it cleans, maintains, and stores varied materials.  Its present activities include industrial non-nuclear activities, as well as nuclear activities:  maintenance, disassembling of mechanical entities, dismantling, and decontamination [CogSoc 00].  . 

Wastes

The solid wastes from Eurodif include fluorines contaminated with uranium that Socatri deposited and still deposits in the Bellegarde dump (Gard): in September 2000, the dump stored 12,068 t (1,070 t having arrived in 1999) of fluorinated waste [Andra 00].   The fluorines come, at least in part, from the treatment of the effluents for washing gases in columns of Eurodif’s Annexe U. Socrati releases them into the "milieu naturel" after precipitation and filtration of the fluorine.

The wastes stored at the INB of Socatri included at the end of 1999 wastes generated at Eurodif, wastes generated at Socatri on behalf of Eurodif, wastes belonging to Eurodif and awaiting restitution, waste from Sicn awaiting treatment (17.1 t), treated waste from the Etablissement de Bourges (312.4 t), and from the Centre de Gramat (327.2 t) [Andra 00].   

Socatri is equipped with two stations for treating water:  the STEU which treats the effluents containing uranium in order to reduce their tenor in uranium below the 1 mg/l limit; and the STE which treats the chemical effluents that are not radioactive and the radioactive effluents that have already passed through the STEU.  After treatment, the residual aqueous phase is released into the Donzère-Mondragon canal.  "Socatri is studying the installation of new facilities for treatment that are better adapted to present activities" [CogSoc 00].

Problems

In February 1998, the director informed DSIN that Socatri was the source of pollution of the groundwater by hexavalent chromium.  Decontamination began that year [DSIN 98].  In December 1999, M. Hurel of Socatri, summarized the treatment of the groundwater.  At that date, 260,000 m3 of water had been treated and monitoring operations had been enlarged.  The piezometers located outside the plant registered values of less than 0.1 mg/l, the regulatory sill.  Underneath the site, certain points still exceeded that sill [Cogéma 23.xii.99]. According to the activity report of DSIN for the year 2000, it was a question of contamination by nickel as well as by hexavalent chromium, and the treatment continued in 2000.

The director of safety of nuclear installations indicated that he had no objection to Socatri's putting into operation an industrial line to prepare for reuse, in a classic foundry, metals decontaminated and monitored by Socatri, resulting from the maintenance and dismantling of materiel from the nuclear industry.  The metal will be used, after combining with other metal, for the production of special steel.  Such a project raises the question of the monitoring of the decontamination of the metal [Con vi.99].  However, it seems that one foresees the use of the TFA metal in specific areas outside the nuclear industry.

The night of July 7-8, 2008, a retention tank leaked, releasing about 74 kilograms of uranium into waterways around the plant.  Residents of the area were forbidden to draw on their usual sources of water for drinking, bathing, and irrigation.

                                                                                                                    --modified July 20, 2008

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