BULATOM-2011 G. COGNET - G. OUZOUNIAN 11 French Experience in Radioactive Waste Management G. Cognet (CEA), G. Ouzounian (ANDRA) International Nuclear.

BULATOM-2011 G. COGNET - G. OUZOUNIAN 11

French Experience in Radioactive Waste Management

G. Cognet (CEA), G. Ouzounian (ANDRA)

International Nuclear ForumBULGARIAN NUCLEAR ENERGY

NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND WORLD ENERGY SAFETY

International Nuclear ForumBULGARIAN NUCLEAR ENERGY

NATIONAL, REGIONAL AND WORLD ENERGY SAFETY

VARNA (BULGARIA)June 3rd, 2011


40,8%

Housing

29,6%

Transport

19,5%

Industry

Others 7,7%

Agriculture2,4%

French Energy Mix

Source : Bilan énergétique France 2009, Observatoire de l’énergie

50% of the primary energy still rely on fossil fuels

French Electric Production French Energy consumption

Total (2009) : 519 TWh

(of which 45 exported)

Nuclear energy represents 84 % of the electricity consumption


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)

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

Average : 29

Fra

nc

e -

ED

F

Average age of the nuclear fleets in the world


Research on Nuclear Waste ManagementA 1st law in 1991: 15-years research program

Transmutation

Partitioning Area 1 Conditioning & long term interim storage

Area 3

Geological repository Area 2


The French nuclear fuel cycleToday and tomorrow

GEN IVGEN IV

DisposalDisposal

StorageStorage

TodayToday

TomorrowTomorrow


Waste management : an industrial reality

Final StorageVitrification & Conditioning Interim storage

Separation

• Save fissile materials• Reduce toxicity• Reduce thermal load

• Reduce volume• Improve package performance

TransmutationEnhanced Separation

Offer safe and economically viable technical solutions for managing nuclear waste

In FranceIn France

Act of JuneAct of June

2828thth, 2006, 2006

In FranceIn France

Act of JuneAct of June

2828thth, 2006, 2006


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

Law passed on June 28, 2006 on the sustainable management of nuclear materials and waste :

Design project for HLL waste disposal, in progress

Research from Underground laboratory (URL), in operation

Nuclear wastes : an updated regulatory framework


Radioactive waste classification in France

Centre de Morvilliers(waste from dismantling operations)

Short-lived wastePeriod ≤ 31 years

Long-lived wastePeriod > 31 years

Graphite, radium-bearing waste

(Studies stage in France)

Waste from dismantling operations (CSTFA in France since 2003)

Waste from dismantling operations (CSTFA in France since 2003)

High level

Intermediate level

Low level

Very low

level

Waste from SF reprocessing plants (Geological disposal facility in France to be commissioned in 2025)

Waste from SF reprocessing plants (Geological disposal facility in France to be commissioned in 2025)

Waste mainly from day-to-day operation

of NPPs(CSFMA in France since 1992)

HL vitrified waste : after reprocessing & cooling,


French National Waste Inventory (2009)

Volume distribution:1,150,969 m3

Including 62 nuclear-power industryIncluding 89% with a disposal solution

Radiological distributionIncluding HL (95% of radioactivity)


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.

ANDRA


Location of ANDRA facilities

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

ANDRA financing and locations


Existing disposal facilities

Low-level and intermediate-level (LIL) short-lived waste

Very-low-level waste (VLL)


Centre de la Manche Disposal 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.


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.


The Disposal Facility for LIL-level Waste

in the Aube District (CSFMA)


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


Projects for disposal facilities

High-level and intermediate-level long-lived waste (HIL)

Low-level long-lived waste (LL-LL)


The Cigéo Project (Centre industriel de stockage géologique)

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


An unsurpassed scientific and technical knowledge

Underground laboratory

Emplacement or removal of HL packages from the disposal cell

Andra already has an unsurpassed scientific and technical knowledge on the geological disposal of radioactive waste in clay.

Drift-opening test

HLW-cell excavation test


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.


Political challenges

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.

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 declineAndra proposes to validate the

selected site after the public debate scheduled late 2012/early 2013.

ZIRAUnderground Laboratoryand its transposition zone


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


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


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


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:

LL-SL waste and design concepts (2012: report on possible solutions)

“ Repository with reworked cover ”“ Repository with intact cover ”

– 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.


Waste treatment and recycling


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

Strengthens proliferation resistance

Helps gain and sustain public acceptance

Recycling advantages

FPMA + FP

Spent fuel (Pu + MA + FP)

Natural uranium ore

Time (years)

Rel

ativ

e ra

diot

oxic

ity


Partitioning

Conception and test of molecules Qualification

0104

Technological demonstration of process

France: Feasibility of partitioning France: Evaluation

report

Spent fuel

U

RETRAITEMENT

Glass

Pu

REPROCESSING

Very selective moleculesPartitioning performances > 99 %

FP

+ Partitioning

NP Am Cm Actinides

Industrial stage: ~ 2030


Transmutation

Time (years)

Gai

n in

ra

diot

oxic

ity,

redu

ctio

n co

mpa

red

to

ope

n cy

cle

Recycling of plutonium

Integral recycling of plutonium and minor actinides

Open cycle

ECRIX ( 2,75 g of Am)

Industrial stage: ~ 2050

France: Evaluation report

and systems

0498scenarios

9101

Physics

France: Feasibility of transmutation


Conclusion

In spite of the recent Fukushima accident, the use of nuclear energystill 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 oncontinuous improvement taking into account operational feedbackand 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 cooperations are keys for an optimal energy future in Europe : sustainability and competitiveness

BULATOM-2011 G. COGNET - G. OUZOUNIAN 11 French Experience in Radioactive Waste Management G. Cognet (CEA), G. Ouzounian (ANDRA) International Nuclear.

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