Experimental resarch of nuclear waste27/05/2008

By Baptiste Mercier Teacher: Radek Vasicek

Country : FRANCE

350 people are working for ANDRA. 200 are engineers.

The French National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management

Public industrial and commercial organisation created by the Act of 30 December 1991.

Andra operates independently of waste producers. It comes under the supervision of the French Ministries for Industry, Research and the Environment, and is responsible for the long-term management of

radioactive waste produced in France.

What is ANDRA ?

75% of France’s electricity is of nuclear origin. It

is produced by 58 pressurized water reactors.

In 2006, they generated 428.7 TWh of electricity.

About Electricity in France…

Evolution of electricity production in France, showing the progress of nuclear electricity among years (source

DGEMP 2007)

How much waste does France produce ?

Waste category Tonnage Volume

HLW 100 m3/year

ILW-LL 1 000 m3/year

LILW-SL 13 000 m3/year

Radiferous waste

300 T/year

VLLW 25 000 T/year

HLW : High Level Waste comprises spent fuel residue which is unsuitable for reprocessing, i.e. fission products and transuranic elements other than plutonium.

ILW-LL : Long-Lived Intermediate Level Waste includes fuel cladding, grippers or other instruments contaminated by radioactive elements with a long half-life during reprocessing operations.

The following table shows the various waste categories and their approximate radioactivity

levels:

Waste Category Radioactivity

HLW billion Bq/g

ILW million Bq/g

LLW around 100,000 Bq/g

Graphite waste 100 000 Bq/g

Radiferous waste 10 à 8000 Bq/g

VLLW 10 Bq/g

How radioactive is it?

Andra is spread over 5 sites : the agency headquarters in Châtenay-Malabry

the Manche waste disposal facility in Beaumont-Hague (Manche), which received waste packages between 1969 and 1994 and is now in the surveillance phase

the Aube waste disposal facility in Soulaines (Aube), which receives short-lived, low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste

the VLLW disposal facility in Morvilliers (Aube), which receives very-low-level radioactive waste

the Meuse/Haute-Marne underground research laboratory in Bure (Meuse), set up to study the feasibility of a deep geological waste repository in clay for high-level and long-lived intermediate-level radioactive waste.

The missions of ANDRA

Producing and publishing the inventory and the locations of radioactive materials and waste in France,

Doing research and studies on storage and deep geological disposal

Designing, installing and managing storage facilities or disposal facilities for radioactive waste taking account of long term prospects for production and management of this waste and to carry out all the studies necessary for this purpose;

Radioactive waste management and remediation of orphan radioactively polluted sites,

Providing the public with information about the management of radioactive waste.

3 different activities:

Industrial activity: The Andra manages and monitor the surface disposal centers which handle the short-lived Low Level Waste and Medium Level Waste produced in France (it represents 90% of the waste).

Research activity: The Andra is in charge of the study on the possibility of reversible or irreversible disposal for the long lived High Level Wastes in deep geological repositories carried by the building of underground research laboratories.

Information activity: The Andra has created a national observatory in charge of classifying and localizing all the radioactive wastes present in France.

The Aube waste disposal facility

All the low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste produced in France is sent to the Aube waste disposal facility.

Environmental monitoring around the Aube waste disposal facility

More than 1,500 environmental quality measurements (air, soil, and water monitoring) were carried out before the first radioactive waste arrived at the Aube waste disposal facility. These measurements represent the zero reference point. Since the arrival of the first waste package in 1992, regular measurements in and around the site have been taken and compared with the reference point.

Milk sampling on a farm

In 2002, 17,000 analyses were performed in the environment and on site installations.

Air and soil monitoring :Natural radioactivity measurements taken in the vegetation around the Aube facility before it came into service

Water monitoring :Water samples were taken from 3 streams near the site

Water sampling in the Noues d’Amance River

Aim: to find a solution for managing high-level and long-lived intermediate-level radioactive waste over the very long term.

two key principles for research:

protecting nature, the environment and health

considering future generations

research

Line 1: partitioning and transmutation studies

Studies in this area are generally aimed at finding solutions to partition and transmute radioactive elements contained in waste. This means using nuclear reactors, particle accelerators or innovative system to transform long-lived radioactive waste into stable or short-lived isotopes and thus reduce the volume of waste requiring confinement over very long periods of time.

The fission of a nucleus (broken into two new nuclei by the impact of a neutron) is a form of transmutation

The 3 lines of research

The aim is to provide the necessary data for assessing the feasibility of a deep geological waste repository.

This means:

comparing theoretical repository concepts with the particular conditions encountered in clearly defined geological sites

demonstrating their safety over the very long term.

The repository concepts studied are based on the multiple-barrier principle.

The barriers are:

the waste package (the waste and the material used to stabilise it in a suitable overpack)

the engineered barrier inserted between the waste package and the rock, and the geological barrier, i.e. the actual rock.

Site characteristics are first studied from the surface, then in situ in an underground research laboratory.

Line 2: deep geological disposal studies

In 1999, the French government approved the decision to create a laboratory on a clay site in Bure (Meuse/Haute-Marne). Andra is in charge of this programme.

Virtual image of a drift in the Underground Research Laboratory

Line 3: studies on conditioning and long-term near-surface storage

Research in this field includes the development of devices to store waste over several decades under acceptable safety conditions.This work is conducted by the CEA, with assistance from Andra and the CNRS, and is based on information provided by EDF and COGEMA, the chief producers of high-level and long-lived intermediate-level radioactive waste.

Drum containing vitrified waste