Andra
Everything you ever wanted to know about radioactive waste management
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CONTENTS Pages 4/5 Radioactivity and radioactive waste
Pages 6/7 Andra, its role, its activities, its funding
Pages 8/9 The classification of radioactive waste and disposal concepts
Pages 10/11 The journey taken by radioactive waste
Pages 12/13 Andra sites
Pages 14/15 Glossary Key milestones in the management of radioactive waste in France
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RADIOACTIVITY
and radioactive waste Radioactive waste Radioactive waste is made up of radioactive substances that cannot be used or reprocessed, and that have to be managed in specific ways.
Radioactivity Radioactivity is a natural phenomenon, a property of certain unstable atoms, radionuclides, that can transform spontaneously into another atom while emitting radiation. Radioactive atoms can be found naturally in the human body, in food (milk, potatoes, fish, etc.) and in the environment (soil, rainwater, seawater, air etc.). An element's radioactivity decreases naturally over time, more or less quickly depending on the type of radionuclide. Since radioactivity was discovered, its properties have been used for a large number of applications: power production, chemistry, biology (studying cells), geology, archaeology (dating), farming, healthcare (diagnosing and treating cancers), etc. It can be also used in industry, for food preservation (ionisation), weld testing in the metallurgy field, sterilising medical equipment, or smoke detection for example. All these activities produce waste, some of which is radioactive.
It takes many different forms: rubble, scrap metal, gloves, filters, resins, overalls, pipettes, bottles, needles or everyday objects such as alarm clocks, fountains or lightning rod tips. Radioactive waste may come from the maintenance or operation of nuclear facilities, their decommissioning, the reprocessing of spent fuel from nuclear power plants, the cleaning up of historic sites polluted by radioactivity, research activities, industrial processes, medical examinations or healthcare, or from private individuals with old objects dating from between the wars. To protect humans and the environment from the hazards constituted by radioactive waste, France, like most other countries, has chosen to dispose of the various types of waste in industrial installations appropriate for each type. The aim is to isolate it until its radioactivity has decreased enough through natural decay to no longer constitute a risk. There are already repositories in France that take in 90% of the radioactive waste produced every year. Andra is currently looking into solutions for dealing with other types of waste. In the meantime, the waste is in interim storage in specific facilities.
Examples of natural radioactivity In France, the production of radioactive waste is the equivalent
(expressed in becquerels, see page 14)
1 kilo of globe artichokes: 300 Bq
1 litre of mineral water: 5 Bq
of 2 kg per year per inhabitant.
1 kg of potatoes: 150 Bq
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Origin of existing radioactive waste by sector Source: 2012 edition of the French National Inventory.
3% 1% 11% 59%
26%
Nuclear power Research
Defence Industry
2012 edition of the French National Inventory of Radioactive Materials and Waste identifies about 1,320,000 m3 of radioactive waste produced up to the end of 2010.
Medical
Quantity of waste produced in France per member of the population every year
2,500 kg of industrial waste
360 kg of household waste 2 kg of radioactive waste
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Andra
the National Radioactive Waste Management Agency
Andra is a publicly owned industrial and commercial body, set up by the French act of 30 December 1991. Its role was expanded by the 2006 Planning Act on the long-term management of radioactive materials and waste. Andra is independent of the producers of radioactive waste, and is under the supervision of the ministries responsible for energy, research and the environment.
Its activities Andra's role involves a number of activities: • running the two existing above-ground disposal facilities in the Aube, the first one for low- and intermediate- level, short-lived waste (LILW-SL) and the other one for very-low-level waste (VLLW) , the Cires facility;
Its role
• monitoring the Manche disposal facility, the CSM, France’s first above-ground disposal facility for lowand intermediate-level waste, which is now closed;
Andra is responsible for identifying, implementing and guaranteeing safe management solutions for all French radioactive waste, in order to protect present and future generations from the risks inherent in such substances.
• studying and designing disposal facilities for waste as yet without a special facility, that is: > Low-level, long-lived waste (LLW-LL), > High-level and intermediate-level long-lived waste (HLW, ILW-LL) - the Cigéo project; • taking in radioactive waste from hospitals, research laboratories, universities and radioactive objects owned by private individuals (old luminous clocks and watches, healthcare equipment containing radium, natural laboratory salts, certain minerals, etc.);
Disposal – in brief In France, as in many countries, keeping waste in disposal facilities is the long-term solution chosen for the industrial management of radioactive waste. The facilities are designed to confine the radioactivity present in the waste for the time needed to allow it to decay. The safety of a disposal facility depends on several factors, depending on the nature of the waste: • the package containing the waste; • the disposal cell (or repository structure) in which waste packages are placed; • the geology of the site, constituting a long term natural barrier.
• at the request of the owner or the authorities, cleaning up sites polluted by radioactivity, such as the laboratories used by Marie Curie; • surveying and listing French radioactive waste and issuing theNational Inventory of Radioactive Materials and Waste every three years. The last edition appeared in 2012; • informing all members of the public by means of documents, exhibitions, visits to its facilities, etc.; • preserving the memory of its centres; • promoting and disseminating its know-how outside France.
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Its funding Andra's funding comes from: • contracts with radioactive waste producers (EDF, Areva, CEA, hospitals, research centres etc.) for the disposal of their radioactive waste; • a "research contribution" collected by the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) from waste producers, for research work and studies on storage and disposal of high-level and intermediate-level long-lived waste;
Preserving the memory Andra is going to keep the records from its disposal facilities for several centuries, so that future generations, aware of their existence and their contents, will understand the changes occurring in them and be able to intervene if necessary.
• a state subsidy for its public service duties (compilation of the French National Inventory, collection of radioactive objects from private individuals, and clean-up of sites polluted by radioactivity for which the party responsible has defaulted).
Key figures on 31/12/2012
571 members of staff 5 sites: • Head office in Châtenay-Malabry; • 2 disposal facilities being operated in the Aube: Cires and CSA; • 1 closed disposal facility in the Manche: CSM; • 1 facility in the Meuse/Haute-Marne (CMHM) made up of: - An Underground Research Laboratory, - Technological Exhibition Centre, - EcoDatabank, opening in October 2013.
Andra's head office in Châtenay-Malabry near Paris
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CLASSIFICATION OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE
and disposal concepts In France, there are 5 waste categories, classified according to their disposal solution, which depends in particular on 2 criteria: radioactivity level and half-life.
Low and intermediate level, short-lived radioactive waste (LILW-SL)
Very-low-level waste (VLLW)
Low and intermediate level, shortlived radioactive waste is produced either by the maintenance and operation of nuclear facilities (clothing, tools, filters, etc.), or by research or healthcare activities in laboratories and hospitals. It contains essentially short-lived radioactive atoms, and since 1992 has been disposed of in the Aube disposal facility (CSA), which took over from the Manche disposal facility, operational from 1969 to 1994. Prior to disposal, some of the waste packages are compacted or solidified and then mixed with concrete before being placed in a concrete or metal container An LILW package comprises 15 to 20% waste and 80 to 85% embedding material. It is placed in reinforced concrete surface structures 25 metres long and 8 metres high, built over two superposed geological layers: one of sand, the other of clay. These structures are then closed by a concrete slab, made watertight by a layer of impermeable resin. Finally, a clay cap several metres thick will be placed on the structures to provide long-term protection.
Very low-level waste comes mainly from the operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. It also comes from conventional sectors of industry that use naturally radioactive materials (chemistry, metallurgy, power production etc.). Some comes from the clean-up and remediation of historic sites polluted by radioactivity, and is in the form of inert waste (concrete, rubble, earth, etc.) or metal. It is stored above ground in the Collection, Storage and Disposal Facility (Centre Industriel de Regroupement, d’Entreposage et de Stockage - Cires), opened in 2003. When it arrives in the Cires facility, 30% of the waste received undergoes specific processing before disposal: - Some plastic waste or scrap metal is compacted in order to reduce its volume; - Liquid waste (polluted water, sludge) is solidified and made chemically inert. The waste is then placed in drums or big bags.. Once prepared, these waste packages are labelled and stacked in vaults dug out of the clay layer, a few metres below the surface. Once the vault is full, it is roofed over with a covering containing sand, a waterproof membrane and clay.
Level of radioactivity (%)
Breakdown of volume and radioactivity level per type of radioactive waste (Source: French National Inventory of Radioactive Materials and Waste - 2012 edition )
Volume of waste (%)