Nuclear Waste Management The frame of the law

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Nuclear Waste ManagementThe frame of the law

• Abdallah AMRI
• International Cooperation Manager
• Institute for Radiological Protection and
• Nuclear Safety

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Fuel manufacturing
Enriched uranium
UO2 fuel
Depleteduranium
Interim storage
MOX fuel
Depleted uranium
Manufacturingscrap
Plutonium
Enrichment
Manufacturing scrap
Spent MOX fuels
Conversion
Natural uranium
Recycleduranium
Concentration
Reprocessingplant
Waste
Mining
Final disposal
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Waste removal
Waste production
Disposal / interim storage
Arrêté du 4 janvier 1985
Nuclear site (INB ICPE)
ICPE INB
Supervision through regular inspections and
inventories
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Approval of packages or long-term facility
Package approval, audits

Waste producers
Safety file
Inspections authorisations/licences
Long-term safety analysis file
Long-term management
Inspections authorisations/licences
Inspections authorisations/licences
Waste assessments
Licensing procedures Technical regulations
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RADIOACTIVE WASTE CLASSIFICATION
Short-lived Radwaste (periods of the main
elements lt 30 years)
Long-lived Radwaste
VLLW disposal center at Morvilliers (Aube)
Long-lived LLW (graphite, radium) Subsurface
disposal studied
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LONG TERM WASTE MANAGEMENT

• No great difficulties with LLW disposals
• Centre de la Manche disposal (1969 1994)
• Centre de lAube disposal (1992)
• Nor for VLLW disposal (2003)
• but growing of the local opposition to the
  building of underground laboratories in clays,
  salt, shale or granite according to the demand of
  the French government (1985)
• So, moratorium decided at the beginning of 1990,
  until a law was voted (end of 1991)

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LONG-LIVED HLW (or C waste)
The package of vitrified HLW
Volume of glass 150 liters Net weight of glass
400 kg Height 1,3 m Diameter 0,43 m Stored
en ventilated pits About 0,7 package/t of U
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LONG-LIVED ILW (or B waste)
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LONG-LIVED ILW/HLW MANAGEMENT 1/4THE DECEMBER
30, 1991 ACT - Principles

• Main principles
• The rights of future generations are recognised
• A moratorium on any geological disposal until a
  new law is issued
• A research programme of 15 years is launched
• Public consultation must be implemented

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LONG-LIVED ILW/HLW MANAGEMENT 2/4 THE DECEMBER
30, 1991 ACT - Details

• No disposal in France of waste coming from
  foreign countries
• Three ways of research for the long-lived
  ILW/HLW long term management
• Long-lived nuclides partitioning and their
  transmutation (CEA)
• Deep disposal of the waste, through
  underground laboratories (ANDRA)
• Waste conditioning and their long term storage
  (CEA)
• ANDRA (National Agency for the radioactive waste
  management) set up as an establishment
  independent from the CEA
• Commission Nationale d'Évaluation (CNE) nat.
  comm. for scientific assessment
• Comité local dinformation et de suivi (CLIS)
  commission of local representatives and members
  of local associations
• Financial contribution to local economic
  development

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LONG-LIVED ILW/HLW MANAGEMENT 3/4 THE DECEMBER
30, 1991 ACT Results (1)

• Three areas investigated through drillings (1994
  1996) in Meuse/Haute-Marne, Gard, Vienne) and
  three application files for the construction of
  underground laboratories
• In December 1998, the French government decided
  to keep only one site (Meuse/Haute-Marne)
  authorisation is given to Andra to build an URL
  near Bure (August 1999) first deep
  experimentations begin in 2005
• Important progress have been achieved on
  long-lived nuclides partitioning and, in a less
  extend, on feasibility of their transmutation
• What could be a long term storage has been
  assessed

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LONG-LIVED ILW/HLW MANAGEMENT 4/4 THE DECEMBER
30, 1991 ACT Results (2)

• Delivery in June 2005 of the detailed reports of
  the results about each of the three ways of
  research
• Examination of these results by CNE, OPECST
  (Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology
  Assessment), ASN (Safety Authority) with the help
  of IRSN, OCDE
• Public debate, between Sept. and Dec. 2005
• At the end of January 2006, the members of
  Parliament had in their hands all what was needed
  to set up a new law

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THE NEW LAW THE JUNE 28, 2006 PROGRAMME ACT on
the Sustainable Management of Radioactive
Materials and Waste (1/9)

• Main principles
• Definition of a national policy for the
  Management of Radioactive Materials and Waste
  (research objectives, terms meaning, national
  plan of management, foreign waste disposal is
  forbidden, )
• Measures to improve transparency and democratic
  monitoring of the policy (CNE maintained,
  improvement of the CLIS work, two parliamentary
  debates before any decision of a repository
  construction)
• New elements for a better organization (local
  economic development, Andra missions, research
  funding, guarantees for the long term funding of
  the nuclear activities)

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THE JUNE 28, 2006 PROGRAMME ACT on the
Sustainable Management of Radioactive Materials
and Waste (2/9)

• Research axis for ILW/HLW - Precise milestones
  for axis 1 and 3, a cautious plan for axis 2
• Axis 1
• review in 2012 of the different ways for
  transmutation (ADS or reactors of fourth
  generation)
• prototypes from 2020
• Axis 2
• Examination in 2015 of an application to
  authorize a geological disposal
• Running such a disposal in 2025.
• Axe 3
• build new installations for waste storage no
  latter than 2015 or modify the present industrial
  ones

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THE JUNE 28, 2006 PROGRAMME ACT on the
Sustainable Management of Radioactive Materials
and Waste (3/9)

• Research axis for other types of waste and some
  materials
• put into operation in 2013 a disposal for the
  long-lived LLW (graphite and radium-containing
  waste)
• Propositions in 2008 for the storage of tritiated
  waste before their disposal (surface or low
  depth)
• Finalisation by 2008 of processes allowing the
  disposal of sealed sources (existing or
  to-be-built site)
• An appraisal in 2009 of the short- and long-term
  management solutions for waste with enhanced
  natural radioactivity
• An appraisal in 2008 of the long term impact of
  the disposal site of uranium mining waste and
  implementation of a strengthened radiological
  surveillance plan at these sites

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THE JUNE 28, 2006 PROGRAMME ACT on the
Sustainable Management of Radioactive Materials
and Waste (4/9)

• Clearing up of some definitions
• Disposal (potentially definitive) versus storage
  (never definitive)
• Reversibility of deep disposal
• Reversibility will be required for the
  authorisation of a deep (geological) disposal a
  new law in about ten years will precise the
  reversibility meanings its length should not
  be shorter than 100 years but should be limited
  in length (a definitive closing is already
  considered)

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THE JUNE 28, 2006 PROGRAMME ACT on the
Sustainable Management of Radioactive Materials
and Waste (5/9)

• The national plan of management
• Clearing of its status
• Objectives to be reached, work organisation
• Its is updated and rendered into a decree every
  three years.
• The first version should be finalized by the end
  of December 2006
• Three principles confirmed
• Reduction of the quantity and the nocivity of the
  waste (Reduction at the source, reprocessing of
  spent fuel)
• Storage as a first step
• After storage, the disposal as definitive
  solution (for long-lived ILW/HLW, disposal in a
  geological repository)
• Conditioning before 2030 of all the waste
  produced before 2015

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THE JUNE 28, 2006 PROGRAMME ACT on the
Sustainable Management of Radioactive Materials
and Waste (6/9)

• Democracy et transparency
• More independence of the CNE members
• Modification of the authorisation procedure for
  a geological repository
• A preliminary public debate
• reports from the CNE, the OPECST, the ASN,
  collection of the opinion of the territorial
  authorities located entirely or partially in a
  consultation zone defined by decree
• Presentation by the government of a bill laying
  down the reversibility conditions
• authorization by a State Council decree after a
  public inquiry
• A new bill will be needed to allow the closure of
  the repository

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THE JUNE 28, 2006 PROGRAMME ACT on the
Sustainable Management of Radioactive Materials
and Waste (7/9)

• Democracy et transparency (following)
• Modifications of the dispositions concerning the
  CLIS (Local Information and Follow-up Committee)
• missions (competences on the three axis)
• composition (territorial authorities,
  representatives of agricultural and trade unions,
  of medical professions, qualified personalities,
  )
• organisation (may have the status of an
  association, chaired by one of its member, a
  national or local elected representative,
  appointed by joint decision of the presidents of
  general councils of the concerned departments)

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THE JUNE 28, 2006 PROGRAMME ACT on the
Sustainable Management of Radioactive Materials
and Waste (8/9)

• Changes in Andra missions and funding
• Missions
• Intervention on the radioactively polluted sites
  when the responsible are in default
• Assessment of the cost relating to the
  implementation of long term management solutions
  for ILW/HLW
• Actions for public information and diffusion of
  scientific and technological culture

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THE JUNE 28, 2006 PROGRAMME ACT on the
Sustainable Management of Radioactive Materials
and Waste (9/9)

• Changes in Andra missions and funding (following)
• funding
• A fund is set up in the agency budget to finance
  research on storage and disposal, fed by an
  additional research tax to the tax on basic
  nuclear installations
• State subsidy for general interest missions
• A second fund is set up to finance the
  construction, operation, final closure,
  maintenance and monitoring of the ILW/HLW storage
  or disposal installations, built or operate by
  the agency. This fund is fed by the contributions
  paid by the basic nuclear installation operators