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French Experience in Radioactive Waste Management

International Nuclear Forum BULGARIAN NUCLEAR ENERGY NATIONAL , REGIONAL AND WORLD ENERGY SAFETY. French Experience in Radioactive Waste Management. G. Cognet (CEA), G. Ouzounian (ANDRA). VARNA (BULGARIA) June 3rd, 2011. Agriculture 2,4%. Others 7,7%. 40,8% Housing.

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French Experience in Radioactive Waste Management

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  1. International Nuclear Forum BULGARIAN NUCLEAR ENERGY NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND WORLD ENERGY SAFETY French Experience in Radioactive Waste Management G. Cognet (CEA), G. Ouzounian (ANDRA) VARNA (BULGARIA) June 3rd, 2011

  2. Agriculture 2,4% Others 7,7% 40,8% Housing 19,5% Industry 29,6% Transport French Energy Mix French Electric Production French Energy consumption Total(2009) : 519 TWh (of which 45 exported) Source : Bilan énergétique France 2009, Observatoire de l’énergie 50% of the primary energy still rely on fossil fuels Nuclear energy represents 84 % of the electricity consumption

  3. Average age of the nuclear fleets in the world France - EDF The French nuclear fleet - 58 PWR units (22 MOX) • Operated by EDF - 63 GWe installed - Connections to the grid : • Fessenheim in April 1977 • Civaux 2 in Dec. 1999 • Average age : 25 years Designed to operate 40 years or more • ensures competitiveness of electricity • prices • depends on the components : containment • structure and vessel can’t be changed • 60 years already approved or considered • in some countries (ex : USA) Average : 29

  4. Conditioning & long term interim storage • Partitioning Area 1 Area 3 • Transmutation • Geological repository Area 2 Research on Nuclear Waste Management A 1st law in 1991: 15-years research program

  5. The French nuclear fuel cycle Today and tomorrow GEN IV Storage Tomorrow Today Disposal

  6. Waste management : an industrial reality Offer safe and economically viable technical solutions for managing nuclear waste In France Act of June 28th, 2006 Separation Enhanced Separation Transmutation • Save fissile materials • Reduce toxicity • Reduce thermal load • Reduce volume • Improve package performance Vitrification & Conditioning Interim storage Final Storage

  7. Nuclearwastes : an updatedregulatoryframework Law passed on June 28, 2006 on the sustainable management of nuclear materials and waste : • National Plan for managing nuclear materials and radioactive waste (PNG-MDR), • Stepwise program for Long-Lived Waste ; complementarity of various approaches (partitioning and transmutation, geological repository and interim storage) • Secured long term funding of radioactive waste management Specifies in particular the conditions and the roadmap to have a retrievable geological repository in operation by 2025 Research from Underground laboratory (URL), in operation Design project for HLL waste disposal, in progress

  8. Radioactive waste classification in France Short-lived waste Period ≤ 31 years Long-lived waste Period > 31 years Very low level Waste from dismantling operations (CSTFA in France since 2003) Centre de Morvilliers (waste from dismantling operations) Graphite, radium-bearing waste (Studies stage in France) Waste mainly from day-to-day operation of NPPs (CSFMA in France since 1992) Low level Waste from SF reprocessing plants (Geological disposal facility in France to be commissioned in 2025) Intermediate level High level HL vitrified waste : after reprocessing & cooling,

  9. French National Waste Inventory (2009) Volume distribution: 1,150,969 m3 Including 62 nuclear-power industry Including 89% with a disposal solution Radiological distribution Including HL (95% of radioactivity)

  10. ANDRA Andra, the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency, was instituted by law in 1991 as a public industrial and commercial establishment (EPIC). It is: • independent from the waste producers • placed under the supervision of the ministers in charge of Research, Energy and the Environment • responsible for the long-term management of all radioactive waste produced in France • it involves about 500 paid employees (2/3 engineers and managers) and a budget of 180 M€ The Planning Act of 28 June 2006 concerning the sustainable management of radioactive materials and waste provides the framework for its action.

  11. ANDRA financing and locations Andra’s financing originates from: • contracts with producers of radioactive waste • a special “research”tax collected by the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) from basic nuclear installations (INB) • a State subsidy for its missions of general interest (national waste Inventory, collection of radioactive items, clean-up of polluted sites with defaulting responsible entity) • growth investments through a 100 M€ fund for radioactive-waste treatment and recycling Location of ANDRA facilities

  12. Existing disposal facilities • Low-level and intermediate-level (LIL) short-lived waste • Very-low-level waste (VLL)

  13. Centre de la MancheDisposal Facility A facility under monitoring in the Manche District Closed in 1994 after reaching its maximum disposal capacity, the Centre de la Manche Disposal Facility contributed for 25 years to the disposal of about 527,000 m3 of low-level and intermediate-level waste (LIL). For several centuries, the facility and its environment will be submitted to ongoing monitoring.

  14. Disposal facilities in the Aube District Two operating surface-disposal facilities in the Aube District • The Disposal Facility for LIL Waste (CSFMA) opened in 1992. Located in Soulaines (Eastern France), it is designed to accommodate 1 million cubic metres of LL/IL SL waste, consisting mostly of NPPs’ operational and maintenance waste. Filled at 24.5% with 60 years of operation to go. • The Disposal Facility for VLL Waste (CSTFA) opened in 2003 at Morvilliers. It is used to dispose of • 650,000 m3 of VLL waste resulting from the dismantling of basic nuclear installations. Filled at 27% with 15 years of operation to go.

  15. The Disposal Facility for LIL-level Waste in the Aube District (CSFMA)

  16. The Disposal Facility for VLL Waste in the Aube District (CSTFA)

  17. Projects for disposal facilities • High-level and intermediate-level long-lived waste (HIL) • Low-level long-lived waste (LL-LL)

  18. The Cigéo Project (Centre industriel de stockagegéologique) • The Cigéo (Industrial Geological Waste Repository) constitutes a non-typical INB to be built underground and to remain in operation for more than 100 years HA MAVL

  19. An unsurpassed scientific and technical knowledge Andra already has an unsurpassed scientific and technical knowledge on the geological disposal of radioactive waste in clay. HLW-cell excavation test Underground laboratory Drift-opening test Emplacement or removal of HL packages from the disposal cell

  20. Schedule of the Cigéo Project In late 2009, Andra submitted proposals to the government regarding the implementation and design of the repository. The project is entering in the definition and construction phases of the industrial geological repository (“Cigéo”). Pursuant to the Planning Act of 28 June 2006, the three major objectives of the project are now as follows: • to obtain the authorisation to create a repository on the basis of a robust application to be submitted in 2015 • subject to authorisation, to build the first necessary structures for commissioning in 2025 • to control costs • The French project will be the world’s first facility of that type to be built in clay. • In order to succeed, the project must fulfil various political, safety, economical and industrial challenges.

  21. Political challenges • The government validated in March 2010 the 30-km2 zone proposed by Andra for the implementation of underground disposal facilities. • Andra is expected to propose a site for the implementation of surface disposal facilities: • Extra flexibility provided by a decline • Andra proposes to validate the selected site after the public debate scheduled late 2012/early 2013. Underground Laboratory and its transposition zone ZIRA • The reversibility conditions of the repository will be prescribed by a future act (in 2016 ?), after the licence application is submitted, but before the creation licence is granted.

  22. Safety and security challenges • In its capacity as contracting owner and INB operator, Andra is responsible for design choices and their implementation, which are bounding over the long term • Compared to existing facilities, the underground repository includes specificities that do not allow for restricting the task to a simple transposition of practices: • Demonstration of the long-term safety of the facility over 1 million years • For operational safety: management of the co-activity between underground work at a depth of 500 m and nuclear operation • No fire reference system (INB, tunnel) is applicable as such

  23. Economical challenges Pursuant to the Planning Act of 28 June 2006: • INB operators shall fund long-term charges and implement the corresponding dedicated assets (Art. 20) • The Minister in charge of Energy shall rule and make public the cost analysis of the repository on the basis of an Andra estimate after consultation with waste producers and ASN (Art. 14) The cost of the repository is a total cost: • Corresponding expenses are distributed over approximately 120 years (investment, operation, taxes) • Producers fund the system gradually as waste is being produced Assessment made public in 2005: • 13.5 to 16.5 billion € (concepts and economic conditions in 2002, non-discounted raw data over the operating period) • ~1% of the power-production cost • State objective: to generate a new assessment for the public debate

  24. Industrial challenges The Cigéo project is designed to provide France with a safe management solution over the long term for all radioactive waste generated by the French nuclear-power fleet The content of the programme for the first operating section conditions the investments to be made before 2025 and requires a close co-operation between the waste producers • Industrial means also need to be developed by the producers on their own sites with a view to destocking, conditioning, shipping and transporting the waste up to the disposal facility Andra and the waste producers have identified optimisation leads • Andra has proposed to take into account those leads in the new assessment of the repository cost committed by the State • The study of those optimisation leads will in order to draft the creation-licence application • It is necessary to anticipate some flexibility in the future decree that will authorise the creation of the repository in order to allow for design evolutions to take place during the operating lifetime of the repository

  25. LL-SL waste and design concepts (2012: report on possible solutions) In late 2030, that LL/SL waste would represent about 6.75% of the total volume and 0.007% of the overall radioactivity of French radioactive waste*. They include mostly: – radium-bearing waste (with a radium content) ≈ 48,000 m3 – graphite waste (produced by older nuclear power plants) ≈ 70,000 m3 – other LL-LL waste (bitumised waste, sealed sources, etc.) ≈ 33.000 m3 For a conditioned volume of about 150,000 m3* * Forecasts for 2030 according to the data found in the French National Inventory in late 2007. “ Repository with intact cover ” “ Repository with reworked cover ”

  26. Waste treatment and recycling

  27. Relative radiotoxicity Spent fuel (Pu + MA + FP) Natural uranium ore MA + FP FP Time (years) Recycling advantages • Saves up to 25% in natural uranium • Promotes energy independence through: • Recovered Pu recycled into MOX fuel • Recovered RepU recycled into ERU fuel • Increased fuel price predictibility • Optimizes Final disposal by Reducingwaste volume, radiotoxicity and heat load • Helps gain and sustain public acceptance • Strengthens proliferation resistance

  28. France: Feasibility of partitioning France: Evaluation report 04 01 Technological demonstration of process Conception and test of molecules Qualification Partitioning Industrial stage: ~ 2030 U Pu Actinides NP Am Cm Spent fuel REPROCESSING RETRAITEMENT + Partitioning Very selective molecules Partitioning performances > 99 % FP Glass

  29. France: Evaluation report France: Feasibility of transmutation 04 01 98 91 Physics scenarios and systems Transmutation Industrial stage: ~ 2050 Integral recycling of plutonium and minor actinides Gain in radiotoxicity, reduction compared to open cycle Recycling of plutonium ECRIX ( 2,75 g of Am) Open cycle Time (years)

  30. Conclusion • In spite of the recent Fukushima accident, the use of nuclear energy • still remains a need for many countries. Nuclear has the potential • to contribute even more by the Gen IV technologies in the future • Safety is of course an absolute priority. It relies in particular on • continuous improvement taking into account operational feedback • and the results of R&D • Waste management is a key issue for public acceptance. France has a great experience in this field • International cooperation must be developed to share the best practices and assure no release of radioactivity outside the nuclear sites under all circumstances • R&D and cooperationsare keys for an optimal energy future in Europe : sustainability and competitiveness

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