R&D on decommissioning at EDF

1. R&D on decommissioning at EDF Didier Noël, EDF R&D on Decommissioning, Bruxelles, mars 7th , 2003

2. EDF Background • 9 nuclear power plants in decommissioning process • 6 graphite -gas reactors (Chinon : 3, St Laurent 2, Bugey 1) • 1 heavy water reactor (Brennilis) • 1 PWR (Chooz) • Decommissioning scheduled up to 2025 • Cost : 3 billions € • Specific wastes sites: • Very low level waste ( < 100 Bq/g) • graphite storage Didier Noël, EDF R&D on Decommissioning, Bruxelles, mars 7th , 2003

3. Didier Noël, EDF R&D on Decommissioning, Bruxelles, mars 7th , 2003

4. Organisation • A new EDF engineering Department as been set up in 2001 to perform the decommissioning program • CIDEN : French acronym for «Decommissioning and Environmental Engineering Department» • EDF R&D Assist the CIDEN decommissioning project • Technical & scientific support • Research of innovatives solutions • best technical solutions • cost-effective technologies Didier Noël, EDF R&D on Decommissioning, Bruxelles, mars 7th , 2003

5. R&D program components • 5 Components • Waste characterisation and management • Environmental management • On site dismantling techniques • Cost and efficience benchmarking • keeping the knowledge on long term • Ten R&D groups involved Didier Noël, EDF R&D on Decommissioning, Bruxelles, mars 7th , 2003

6. Waste characterisation and management • Decontamination processes • Chemical and physical decontamination process • Mainly focused on waste reduction • Waste management softwares • Fonctional analysis of several sofwares • Participation to the upgrading of EDF sofware Didier Noël, EDF R&D on Decommissioning, Bruxelles, mars 7th , 2003

7. Waste management and characterisation (2/3) • Evaluation of concrete contamination depth • We must know a priori the contaminated concrete thickness to remove • sampling is long and expansive • two alternative techniques studied • Simulation from surface spectrometry • Camberra(Isocs) & Onectra techniques tested • Tests performed at Brennilis • interesting intermediate results, improvments to be done • Simulation of migration • If we know the date of contamination events, are we able to predict the contaminated thickness ? • adaptation of the CHEMTRAP code : simulation of diffusion, migration sorption, solubility phenomenons in concrete • Cs, Co, 3H, Ni Didier Noël, EDF R&D on Decommissioning, Bruxelles, mars 7th , 2003

8. Diffusion of Cs & Co in concrete : - 2D simulation Co Cs 5 years 20 years Co in solution Precipité 1 Precipité 2 • Influence of a crack on the depth of penetration

9. Environmental management • Help to risk and environmental analysis for decommissioning • Data specific to decommissioning ( tritium, 14C, ...) • Models of environmental impacts • Environmental remediation techniques • Acoustic impact control on demolition site Didier Noël, EDF R&D on Decommissioning, Bruxelles, mars 7th , 2003

10. On site dismantling techniques • Development of an integrated engineering software for decommissioning (planification, wastes, costs, engineering scenarios, dosimetry...). • pilot study for a preliminary decommissioning project studies • Robotics solutions Didier Noël, EDF R&D on Decommissioning, Bruxelles, mars 7th , 2003

11. Long-term knowledge keeping • 25 years decommissioning = very long time period • how maintain knowledge on the long term ? • The objective is to structure, formalize and share the various knowledges involved in decommissioning • first step : software mock-up on limited subjects • modelisation of the typology of various knowlege could bring solutions Didier Noël, EDF R&D on Decommissioning, Bruxelles, mars 7th , 2003