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Facilities operated by CEA to support this strategy
Facilities under construction
•
Diadem (BNI 177)
After having provided a safety options file in November
2007, CEA submitted an authorisation application file in
April 2012 for the creation of a facility to store irradiating
IL-LL waste that cannot be stored in Cedra. The waste
in question comes chiefly fromdecommissioning of the
Phénix installation (see chapter 15) and the sites of Saclay
and Fontenay-aux-Roses.
Themain nuclear risks are exposure to ionising radiation,
dissemination of radioactive substances, explosion of
gases produced by radiolysis, release of heat fromwaste
and criticality. Themain safety issues for Diademare thus
themaintaining of container containment quality during
the storage period, monitoring the containers during
that period, archiving and conserving the information
concerning the storedwaste and the possibility of retrieving
the waste at any time.
In its opinion of 12th November 2015 concerning the
draft creation authorisationDecree, ASN emphasised the
following factors resulting from its examination:
•
Diadem occupies an important position in CEA’s
management strategy for ILW-LL and LL/ILW-SL
radioactive waste. Its creation will more specifically
allow the retrieval and packaging of legacy waste
(particularly at the Fontenay-aux-Roses centre) and
the decommissioning of some of its installations,
particularly the Phénix NPP (BNI 71), to be carried
out successfully.
•
Diadem is not designed for the repackaging of radioactive
waste packages which could turn out to be necessary
during their storage should the surveillance programme
detect cases of deterioration in package properties.
This implies that the safety of this storage facility also
depends on the availability of a facility that is licensed
to perform these operations.
•
The surveillance programme put in place by CEAmust
allow the evolution of the content of certain packages
containing potentially degradable radioactive waste,
especially organo-halogenated compounds, to be
monitored.
•
CEA has not yet defined the definitive packaging
procedures that will be adopted to adapt the waste
packaging to the acceptance specifications of the receiving
storage facilities. These procedures should be taken
into account to optimise the initial packaging of the
waste that will be stored in Diadem. CEA must study
these procedures following a schedule to be defined
before the facility is commissioned.
•
At this stage of the examination, the design of Diadem
with regard to internal and external hazards is considered
to comply with ASN’s requirements for new facilities.
Compliance will be examined again before the facility
is commissioned on the basis of in-depth studies by the
licensee and taking into account the as-built facility.
At present, CEA plans for this facility to be commissioned
in 2018.
Installations in operation
On the Cadarache site
•
Agate facility (BNI 171)
The function of the Agate facility, which was authorized
by Decree on 25thMarch 2009, is to concentrate, through
evaporation, radioactive aqueous liquid effluents chiefly
containing beta- and gamma-emitting radionuclides.
The resulting concentrates must then be conditioned
in the liquid effluents treatment station of Marcoule.
ASN authorised commissioning of this facility on
29th April 2014. An end-of-startup file incorporating
experience feedback from the facility’s first year of
operation was communicated by CEA on 30th October
2015 and is currently being examined.
Although the measures for monitoring outside
contractors need to be improved, ASN considers that
the organisational set-up, which takes good account of
the Social, Organizational and Human Factors (SOHF),
can ensure a satisfactory level of safety. The inspections
and periodic tests, particularly those concerning system
sealing, must be improved.
•
Cedra facility (BNI 164)
The purpose of the Cedra facility, which was authorized
by the Decree of 4th October 2004, is to process
Intermediate-Level, Long-Lived Waste (ILW-LL) and
store ILW-LL packages with a low and intermediate dose
rate. Storage would be for a period of 50 years, pending
the commissioning of an appropriate disposal route.
Diadem construction site.
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CHAPTER 16:
RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND CONTAMINATED SITES AND SOILS
ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2015