500 / 536
ASN issued a favourable opinion (ASNopinion 2015-AV-
0228 of 26th March 2015) on the draft creation Decree
for the Ecrin BNI. The Ecrin facility was authorised by
Decree of 20th July 2015 for the storage of radioactive
waste for a period of thirty years with a volume of waste
not exceeding 400,000 m
3
and total radiological activity
of less than 120 terabecquerels (TBq).
The Ecrin facility commissioning authorisation application
was submitted by Areva NC on 15th October 2015 and
will be examined in 2016.
1.5.3 EDF waste management
EDF waste management strategy
The waste produced by EDF nuclear power plants is
activated waste (from reactor cores) and waste resulting
from their operation and maintenance. To this can be
added some legacywaste andwaste resulting fromongoing
decommissioningoperations. EDF is also the owner, for the
share attributed to it, of HL and IL-LLwaste resulting from
spent fuel reprocessing in the Areva NC La Hague plant.
Activated waste
This waste notably comprises control rod assemblies
and poison rod assemblies used for reactor operation.
This is IL-LL waste that is produced in small quantities.
This waste is currently stored in the NPP pools pending
transfer to the ICEDA facility.
Operating and maintenance waste
Some of the waste is processed by the Centraco facility in
Marcoule in order to reduce the volume of ultimate waste.
The other types of operational and maintenance waste
are packaged on the production site then shipped to the
CSA or CIRES repositories for disposal (see points 1.3.1
and 1.3.2). This waste contains beta and gamma emitters,
and few or no alpha emitters.
At the end of 2013, EDF submitted a file presenting its
waste management strategy. This file was examined by
the competent Advisory Committees of Experts (GPE)
in 2015. ASN will issue a position statement on this
file in 2016.
The issues and implications
The main issues related to the EDF waste management
strategy concern:
•
the management of legacy waste. This primarily
concerns structural waste (graphite sleeves) from the
graphite-moderated gas-cooled reactor fuels. This
waste could be disposed of in a repository for LLW-LL
(see point 1.3.4). It is stored primarily in semi-buried
silos at Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux. Graphite waste is
also present in the form of stacks in the gas-cooled
reactors currently being decommissioned.
•
changes linked to the fuel cycle. EDF’s fuel use policy
(see chapter 12) has consequences for the fuel cycle
installations (see chapter 13) and for the quantity
and nature of the waste produced. This subject was
examined by the Advisory Committee of Experts for
Nuclear Reactors (GPR) and the Advisory Committee
of Experts for Laboratories and Plants (GPU) on
30th June 2010. Following this examination, in its
letter of 5thMay 2011, ASN asked EDF to implement a
more rigorous policy for managing its storage capacity
for substances before their disposal, treatment or
reprocessing (see chapter 13). More specifically
with regard to waste, EDF must for example ensure
that the available packaging containers can meet the
disposal needs.
Facilities operated by EDF to support this strategy
•
ICEDA (BNI 173)
The purpose of the ICEDA facility, authorised by Decree
on 23rd April 2010, is to process and store activated
waste from operation of the EDF installations and from
the decommissioning of the first-generation reactors and
of the Creys-Malville NPP.
The construction licence for the facility, cancelled by
the Administrative Court of Lyon on 6th January 2012
was re-granted to EDF on 4thDecember 2014 following
an appeal.
Work on the construction site started again in April 2105
after a four-month phase of contractor remobilisation. The
ongoing works concern the finalising of civil engineering
work, assembly of the electro-mechanical equipment,
installation of the linings in the cells, and painting the
premises.
The suspension of the constructionworkmeans that the
projected commissioning of facility is at least three years
behind schedule. The ICEDAcommissioning authorisation
application file should be submitted to ASN in the first
quarter of 2016 with commissioning planned for 2017
after conducting the prior tests.
ASN carried out two inspections in 2015 to verify the
conditions of resuming work on the construction site
and its management. The results of these inspections
were generally satisfactory. Work on the site resumed
with rigour and the worksite is well managed. The level
of surveillance put in place by EDF is appropriate for
the risks. ASN will remain attentive to the quality of
work performance in 2016 to allow the facility to be
commissioned.
•
Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux silos (BNI 74)
The installation, which was authorised by the Decree
of 14th June 1971, comprises two silos which are used
to store irradiated graphite sleeves (LLW-LL) from
the operation of the graphite-moderated gas-cooled
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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