SOLID WASTE AND LIQUID EFFLUENT TREATMENT FACILITIES The CEA operates various types of facilities: laboratories associated with “fuel cycle” research as well research reactors. The CEA also carries out numerous decommissioning operations. Consequently, it produces diverse types of waste. The CEA has specific processing, packaging and storage facilities for the management of this waste. Solid radioactive waste management zone The Solid Radioactive Waste Management Zone (ZGDS – BNI 72) was authorized by the Decree of 14 June 1971. Operated by the CEA, this facility processes, packages and stores the high, intermediate and low-level waste from the Saclay centre facilities. It also stores legacy materials and waste (spent fuels, sealed sources, scintillating liquids, ion-exchange resins, technological waste, etc.) pending disposal. In view of the “dispersible inventory(1) ”currently present in the facility, BNI 72 is one of the priorities of the CEA’s decommissioning strategy which has been examined by ASN, who stated its position on these priorities in May 2019 (see chapter 14 of the full ASN Report). BNI 72 has been definitively shut down since 31 December 2022. Nevertheless, certain wastes can be accepted by the facility until 2025. After analysing the periodic safety review report for BNI 72 submitted at the end of 2017 and examined jointly with the decommissioning file, ASN regulated the conditions of continued operation of the facility through ASN Chairman’s resolution CODEP-CLG-2022-005822 of 2 February 2022. Furthermore, Decree 2022-1107 of 2 August 2022 requiring the CEA to proceed with the decommissioning of BNI 72 was published in the Official Journal. This Decree came into effect on 26 July 2023, the date on which ASN approved the revision of the General Operating Rules (RGEs). ASN has observed numerous delays in the operations to remove fuel or waste from storage. The removal from storage of fuel rods contained in a specific packaging were suspended in 2024 after discovering loss of fuel pellet integrity during handling operations. ASNR will be attentive to CEA’s updating of the safety case and the resumption of operations. The “EPOC”(2) project (a French acronym meaning “Removal of fuel drums”) has experienced difficulties due in particular to termination of the project management contract in 2020, and CEA has taken measures to take over said project management. A pit was opened in 2023 and complementary investigations were carried out in 2024 to consolidate the project input data. ASNR will nevertheless remain attentive to CEA’s management of this project, particularly regarding the work to be carried out with a view to recovering the first drum. 1. Part of the inventory of the radionuclides of a nuclear facility that groups the radionuclides that could be dispersed in the facility in the event of an incident or accident, or even, for a fraction of them, be released into the environment. 2. This project involves a process intended to retrieve and package drums containing a mix of waste and fuel fragments which are currently stored in pits in the facility. The retrieval of these drums requires specific equipment, given the uncertainties concerning their integrity. ASN takes positive note of the completion of removal of the fifteen fuel cans from a pool in a building and the removal of four isotopic generators containing sources in 2024. These operations contribute to the gradual reduction of the facility’s “dispersible inventory”. Lastly, the monitoring of outside contractors must be improved. CEA must also be particularly attentive to preserving the site memory, particularly as regards the equipment necessary for the decommissioning and removal from storage operations. Liquid effluents management zone The Liquid Effluents Management Zone (ZGEL) constitutes BNI 35. Declared by the CEA by letter of 27 May 1964, this facility is dedicated to the treatment of radioactive liquid effluents. The CEA was authorised by a Decree of 8 January 2004 to create “Stella”, an extension in the BNI for the purpose of treating and packaging low-level aqueous effluents from the Saclay centre. These effluents are concentrated by evaporation then immobilised in a cementitious matrix in order to produce packages acceptable by the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (Andra). The evaporation facility used to treat the radioactive effluents has been out of service since 2019 due to technical anomalies on an equipment item. At present the facility is no longer capable of fulfilling its functions (evaporation of effluents, encapsulation of concentrates in cement, collection of effluents from the Saclay effluent producers). In 2023, ASN authorised a modification concerning the separator shell, enabling the evaporation campaigns to be restarted. The corresponding work began at the end of 2024. The process of encapsulation in cement, used to treat the concentrates in the facility, was stopped temporarily by CEA in June 2021, following the production of two 12H active packages that did not comply with packaging approval issued by Andra. CEA obtained Andra’s approval in 2024, allowing removal of the 12H packages stored under a derogation provision, which will enable removals to be resumed in 2025. Work is also in progress to obtain a further approval. Alongside this, the CEA has suspended reception of effluents from other BNIs since 2016, due to the conducting of complementary investigations into the stability of the structure of the room for storing low-level liquid effluents (room 97). The majority of the low- and intermediate-level radioactive effluents produced by the Saclay site production sources are now directed to the Marcoule Liquid Effluent Treatment Station (STEL). This situation raises questions as to whether management of liquid effluents in the facility will be resumed in the future. ASNR will keep close track of this situation and expects CEA to redouble its efforts to render the facility operational in order to be able to retrieve and condition the stored legacy effluents within appropriate time frames. ABSTRACTS – ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2024 67 Regional overview of nuclear safety and radiation protection ÎLE-DE-FRANCE
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