RHONE-ALPES

Purpose: theoretical and applied research

Type: center that is officially civilian but had military aspects

Installations: pilots and laboratories, reactors, storage of waste

Location: 2 km northwest of the center of the city of Grenoble (Isère)

Operator: Commissariat à l’énergie atomique

Period of operation: since 1956

Nuclear materials handled: plutonium, uranium, lithium, tritium, deuterium, thorium

The CEA has reduced its nuclear activities. The main areas of competence today are basic and applied non-nuclear research--condensed-state physics, electronics, materials, and biology--, and applied research on the development of reactor types, mainly in regard to thermal hydraulics [DSIN 99].

The main installations relating to the fuel chain include:

LCAC, which operated from 1968 to 1982, analyzed thorium and uranium compounds , fission product solutions and transuranics. Dismantling to level 3 was completed in 1995 [CEAD 93, 98].

This laboratory studies irradiated uranium- and plutonium-based fuel (particularly from research reactors) and structural materials from reactors. Put into operation in 1968 or earlier, the laboratory includes a "high activity" part and a "very high activity" part named the Laboratoire de très haute activité (THA). The "high activity" part is composed of six shielded cells with lead, and THA of a chain of six enclosures in concrete [DSIN 99]. According to a CEA document, LAMA includes a furnace for melting sodium, which will receive sodium from Siloé [CEAPr 29.iv.99]. However, articles in the press say that 50 kg of sodium that cooled will be sent to the future installation Aténa at Marcoule for destruction [LeMo 25.vi.99; Echo 3.v.99].

The wastes have included 92 t of lead and scrap metal that the center gave to the company Radiacontrôle in the winter of 1992/93 for decontamination in its establishment at Pierrelatte. They had a radioactivity of 1.5 thousand Bq. The Center accepted certificates from Radiacontrôle without proof of the destination of the wastes. Later, authorities learned that the decontamination operation of Radiacontrôle did not meet regulations.

June 27, 1997, during Euratom monitoring, the CEA discovered that an irradiated Mox fuel element that was listed in computerized records as in storage at LAMA, was, in fact, missing [Con iii.99]. The missing rod has never been found. DSIN states that it was probably sent to the Centre de la Manche in one of many concrete containers holding radioactive waste [DSIN 99].

A periodical presenting the center suggested, in 1988, the importance of the work carried on: "Since 1960, the chemical engineering section at Grenoble has mainly developed procedures for isotopic separation, thanks to competencies in chemical engineering and in electrochemistry:

--Studies on lithium . . . bore fruit at the industrial level with the construction of the Miramas plant; they continue with the search for new processes.

--Studies of uranium exclusively concerned isotopic enrichment

--by gaseous diffusion (into 1971);

--by ultracentrifugation (from 1963 to 1969);

--by chemical treatments . . .

--by the laser process with the development (from 1979 to 1982) of a uranium vapor furnace.

--Studies on the isotopes of hydrogen which began with the development of processes for the production of heavy water from 1967 to 1973, continue at present with the French production of deuterium . . . " [CEAG 88].

Projects of the chemical engineering section included the PC4 Pilote de caractéristiques pour l’enrichissement de l’uranium par diffusion gazeuse; and Pilotes PL4, PL8, and PL81 for the enrichment of uranium by chemical treatment (Chemex). PL81 was in operation in 1987-88 [NucF 26.i.87; CEARa 88]. The Chemex installations seem to have been located in an INB-S (a secret basic nuclear installation) responsible to the ministry of industry and within the perimeter of the Grenoble center [Andra 99]. Dismantling of the INB-S was underway in 1999, according to Andra [00]. (On waste, see below.)

Purpose: fundamental and applied research and the production of radioelements

Type: pool with open core

Period of operation: 1963-1997

Power: 35 MW thermal

Fuel: plates with uranium enriched to 93%; then silicide fuel

Moderator and coolant: light water

Siloé used uranium/aluminum fuel with highly enriched uranium (minimal critical mass: 5.5 kg); but in 1996 Siloé was reportedly loaded with silicide fuel with 5-6 g of uranium per cm3, enriched to less than 20% [NucF 9.ix.96].

All MTR uranium-aluminum fuel from Siloé in storage at Grenoble as of 1995 was reprocessed at Marcoule in 1996 [CEAD 96; CEAD 98]. The Purex process in use at La Hague cannot reprocess silicide fuel [CEAD 98]. A CEA press dossier indicates that fuel that was at Siloé in 1999 will be shipped to Pégase and Cascad at Cadarache for storage [CEAPr 29.4.99]. 

A fission products laboratory and a hot cell are associated with Siloé [Con vi.97].

Irradiation tests have been transferred from Siloé to Osiris at Saclay. Basic research performed in Siloé is being continued at Orphée at Saclay and RHF at Grenoble [LeMo 28.vi.99].

Cleanup of Siloé is scheduled to last through 2003; dismantling to level 2 or to level 3 apart form civil engineering is to take place from 2004 to 2007 [CEAD 98, 99].

Purpose: mainly training of personnel

Type: critical model of Siloé

Period of operation: since 1964

Power: 100 kW thermal

Fuel: plates with uranium enriched to 93% (minimal critical mass of 3.9 kg)

A portion of the fuel was reprocessed in the United States and perhaps also at Eurochemic in Belgium, but in 1992 old cores remained [CEARa 65 and 66]

Siloette, which trains staff for EDF’s reactors, was expected in 1999 to remain in operation for several years [DSIN 99]. According to the CEA’s Direction de la Gestion des Déchets, however, cleanup will occur in 2003 and dismantling between 2004 and 2005 [CEAD 98].

Purpose: fundamental and technological research and radiography

Type: pool with open core

Period of operation: 1958-1988

Power: 1 MW thermal, raised to 8 MW thermal in 1971

Fuel: plates with uranium enriched to 93%

In 1994 the CEA received authorization to begin final shutdown operations. Dismantling to level 2 or 3 apart from civil engineering is scheduled to begin in 2001 and to last until 2004 [CEAD 98]. Andra foresees that the dismantling will produce 8 m3 of concrete and 140 m3 of scrap metal with contamination greater than 100 Bq/g and 3m3 of concrete, 60 m3 of scrap metal, and 20 m3 of various other waste with activity of less than 100 Bq/g [Andra 99].

WASTES

Operated since the fifties or sixties, the Sted receives, treats, and stores liquid effluents and solids from Grenoble, the Laue-Langevin Institute, and perhaps also from "certain other laboratories in the city" [CEAD 93]. The installations include or have included a compactor, one or two incinerators, an evaporator, and an installation for coating sludges in bitumen.  Today the CEA evacuates certain of the aqueous liquid effluents from the Cen to Cadarache or Saclay to be treated; and it no longer treats the liquid effluents of the Institute [DSIN 00].  The Sted stores, among other materials, 72 m3 of aqueous effluents and 10 m3 of organic effluents in tanks. The final disposition of these effluents has not yet been determined [Andra 00].

An incinerator burns solid wastes and organic liquid wastes that are "weakly" radioactive.  The incineration of PVC is forbidden.  The solid wastes of "low and medium activity are either incinerated, or compacted."  They are then coated or blocked in cement [DSIN 00].

A chemical reactor, which treats sodium-potassium by hydrolysis, is also located on the site of the Sted [CeaPr 29.iv.99; Con.xii.98].  Reportedly it destroys the sodium-potassium from experiments in Siloé [Echo 3.v.99].

The Stel has been designated as a "pilot unit" to define the modalities of dispatching wastes from the CEA to Centraco:  "creation of a new type of package, repackaging and characterization of stored wastes, taking account of rules for acceptance at Centraco [...]" [CEAD 99].   

Une installation de stockage provisoire de décroissance (Installation for temporary storage for decay [of radioelements]  INB 79.

Furnished with pits in which waste is stored, the installation at present holds 10 m3 of waste contaminated with cesium 137 and cobalt 60, with, in total, a contamination of 2.5 PBq [Andra 00].  The 1999 inventory of Andra noted also activity due to plutonium 239 (4.6 Gbq) and other isotopes that emit alpha particles (8.53 GBq).  The final disposition of the waste has not been determined.

The authorization for gaseous releases, published in the Journal Officiel 23 April 1995, permits the release of 10 TBq per year of gases other than tritium, 20 Bq of tritium, 3 GBq of halogens, and 0.3 GBq of aerosols.

The authorization for liquid releases, published at the same time, permits releases of 1 GBq for radioelements other than tritium, 100 MBq for alpha emitters and 500 GBq for tritium.

A public inquiry on the renewal of authorizations for the release of effluents from the INB at Grenoble was planned for 2001. This renewal concerns Lama (INB 61), Sted (INB 36-79), Mélusine (INB 19), Siloé (INB 20), and Silouette (INB 21) [Con xi.00].

Solid wastes include suspect waste essentially from cleanup and dismantling.

The wastes from the dismantling of the Chemex units were evacuated, according to their activity and their level of mercury, to the Saint-Quentin dump, Jean-Perrin (Isère); to the Bellegarde dump (Gard); to the Aciéries du Haut-Languedoc; to Socrati, for decontamination to less than 1 Bq/g, then Ascometal (Fos-sur-Mer); and to Pierrelatte to be taken in charge. The wastes at less than 100 Bq/g but more than 10 Bq/g alpha and less than 10 ppm mercury (rubble) were, in 1991, "awaiting a decision in favor of Andra or of Lodève" [Lallement 91].

Andra states that in 2000, 73 m3 of natural uranium waste with 320 MBq of alpha activity were stored at Grenoble awaiting disposal.  How to dispose of the wastes has not been decided [Andra 00].

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