Andra
Everything you ever wanted to know about
radioactive waste management
Contents
Pages 4/5
Andra, its role, its activities,
its funding
Pages 6/7
Radioactivity and radioactive waste
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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Andra
Its funding
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;
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 tax, known as the “research tax”, which is collected by ASN, the
French Nuclear Safety Authority from radioactive waste producers;
this tax feeds a “research fund” to finance research and studies on
the storage and disposal of the high-level and intermediate-level
long-lived waste ;
a special contribution paid into a “design” fund by radioactive
waste producers to finance design studies carried out as part of the
deep geological repository project;
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.
a government subsidy for the missions conducted by the Agency
in the general interest (National Inventory, collecting radioactive
objects from private individuals, clean-up of radioactively
contaminated sites where this has not been done by site managers).
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.);
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.
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.
4
Andra's head office in Châtenay-Malabry near Paris
5
Origin of existing radioactive waste by sector
Source: 2012 edition of the French National Inventory.
Radioactivity
3% 1%
and radioactive waste
11%
59%
26%
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.
Nuclear power
Defence
Research
Industry
Medical
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.
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
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
(expressed in becquerels, see page 14)
1 kilo of globe artichokes:
300 Bq
1 litre of mineral water:
5 Bq
In France,
the production
of radioactive waste
is the equivalent
of 2 kg per year
per inhabitant.
1 kg of potatoes: 150 Bq
6
7
High-level and intermediate-level waste,
long-lived (HLW/ILW-LL)
Classification of
radioactive waste
Low-level
long-lived waste (LLW-LL)
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.
(Source: French National Inventory of Radioactive
Materials and Waste - 2012 edition )
> Radium-bearing waste owes its name to the radium
it contains. It comes from the processing of various
minerals used, for example, in the automotive industry
or fine metallurgy.
It is currently stored on the CEA and industrial
producers sites.
> Graphite waste, as its
name suggests, contains graphite, a mineral
corresponding to a very
pure variety of carbon...
It is produced from the
dismantling of the first
generation of nuclear
reactors, today shut down,
and is currently stored on the EDF, CEA and Areva
sites.
> Other types of waste also come into this category:
radioactive lighting rod tips, smoke detectors, luminous paint (formerly used in the clock-making industry
for example). Radioactive objects, which, although
they are no longer produced, may be found in private
houses (radium watches,
radium needles).
Andra is examining the various possible management
scenarios for this waste, in order to propose
appropriate, safe disposal solutions..
Level of radioactivity (%)
Breakdown of volume and
radioactivity level per type of
radioactive waste
Low-level long-lived waste is made up mainly of two
kinds of waste: “radium-bearing” and “graphite".
High-level waste (HLW) and intermediate-level waste
(ILW-LL) come mainly from the nuclear power industry
and related research, plus, to a lesser extent, activities
involved in the Defence sector.
> HL waste corresponds mainly
to highly radioactive residue from
the reprocessing of spent fuel used
for power production, and to a
very slight extent, waste from the
Defence sector).
> ILW-LL is of various types. It mainly consists in
the metal cladding structures surrounding nuclear
fuel elements (hulls and end caps) or residues
from the operation of nuclear facilities
Cigéo, the deep geological
repository project for
HLW and ILW-LL
With the 1991 act, Parliament added to French law the
concept of long-term, safe solutions for HL and IL-LL waste
with the aim of not leaving responsibility for it to future
generations. In 2006, Parliament opted for deep reversible
disposal as the solution for the long-term management of HLW
and ILW-LL radioactive waste. The act made Andra responsible
for studying the design and location on the border between
the Meuse and Haute-Marne districts.
Pending the commissioning of the disposal facility,
existing packages of HLW and ILW-LL are in dry
storage in the buildings on the site where they are
produced, mainly at La Hague,
Marcoule and Cadarache.
Volume of waste (%)
<0.01
27
Very-low-level waste (VLLW)
0.02
63
Low- and intermediate-level
waste, short-lived (LILW-SL)
0.01
7
Low level
long-lived waste (LLW/LL)
4
3
Intermediate level waste
long-lived (ILW-LL)
96
0.2 High level waste (HLW)
Loading the disposal vault with the packages in the Aube
disposal facility (CSA)
8
9
Preserving
the memory
of our sites
and passing down
to future generations
after 300 years
VLL waste structure
The journey taken by
radioactive waste
Transporting radioactive waste to Andra's
facilities in the Aube
Processing and packaging (*)
of most radioactive waste by the producers
Using the properties of radioactivity
in 5 main economic sectors: the nuclear power
industry, defence, research,
non-nuclear-power industry, healthcare
Radiological checks
on packages, their contents
and on their compliance with
Andra's requirements
Reception of waste
by Andra in its dedicated disposal
facilities
Production
of radioactive
waste
HL, IL-LL
and LL-LL
waste
LIL-SL and
VLL waste
Closure
of disposal
facilities
Processing of certain
packages before disposal
to reduce their volume
(compacting or solidification
for example)
Disposal of packages
Monitoring disposal facilities and their
surroundings
while they are operating and after they have
been closed
Waste sorted
by the producers as soon as it
has been produced
In-depth inspection
on packages chosen at random
after delivery
Very-shortlived
waste
half-life
less than
100 days
In situ radioactive decay before
being dealt with in the same way
as standard waste
10
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11
Andra's sites
The Aube disposal facilities
The Meuse/Haute-Marne facility (CMHM)
> The Underground Research Laboratory
> The Technological Exhibition Centre
Set up in 2000, the Underground Research Laboratory,
at a depth of 490 metres, is a unique research
laboratory studying reversible deep disposal for highlevel (HLW) and intermediate-level long-lived (ILW-LL)
waste. Its underground drifts are being used to study
in situ a 160-million-year-old layer of clay.
The French 2006 act has given Andra responsibility for
designing and setting up a deep geological repository
for this type of waste. If it is licensed, It will be called
Cigéo and will be located near the laboratory.
The Technological Exhibition Centre presents Cigéo,
the project for a geological repository for long-lived
high- and intermediate-level waste, through a display of
models and the industrial robots and prototypes
produced by Andra to test and validate the technological
concepts involved in this type of disposal: concrete
package container, handling system, etc.
> The industrial facility for grouping, storage and
disposal (Cires)
The Manche disposal facility (CSM)
The 45-hectare Cires facility has been taking in and
disposing of very-low-level waste since 2003. It has
also dealt with the collection and storage of nonnuclear-power waste since the autumn of 2012.
It has received authorisation for 650,000 m3, and is
used for disposal of very-low-level waste.
In the building used for collection, non-nuclearpower waste is delivered, labelled and, if applicable,
repackaged, before being put into storage or a disposal
facility.
France’s first disposal facility, with a 15-hectare
footprint, took in 527,225 m3 of low- and intermediatelevel radioactive waste between 1969 and 1994.
It is currently in the monitoring phase, which will last
at least 300 years.
CENTRE DE STOCKAGE DE LA MANCHE
ZI de Digulleville - BP 807 • 50448 Beaumont-Hague cedex - France
The storage building takes in packages of non-nuclearpower waste (certain radioactive lightning rod tips,
some radium-containing items used in healthcare, etc.)
until a dedicated disposal facility is set up.
> The Aube disposal facility (CSA)
Key figures for the Underground
Research Laboratory
Over 1.2 kilometres of experimental drifts.
Over 40 experiments set up in the underground drifts
Cooperation agreements with over 10 research
bodies and universities.
Contacts with over
70 academic
Andra sites are
laboratories.
open to the public
free of charge,
all year round.
To visit the center: 0810 120 172
CENTRE DE MEUSE/HAUTE-MARNE
(Underground Research Laboratory,
Technological Exhibition Centre, Ecothèque)
Route départementale 960 • BP 9 • 55290 Bure
Find out more on
www.andra.fr/andra-manche
To visit the center: 0 810 107 907
Key figures
for Andra's disposal facilities in the
Aube
on 31/12/2012
> 269,611 waste packages disposed of in
the Cires facility since 2003, i.e. 277,448 m3,
corresponding to 39% of the facility's official total
disposal capacity.
>3
32,361 waste packages disposed of in the
Aube facilities since 1992, i.e. 267,496 m3,
corresponding to 26.7% of the facility's official
total disposal capacity.
This facility, with a 95-hectare footprint and a
capacity of 1,000,000 m3, is dedicated to low- and
intermediate-level, short-lived waste. It has been in
operation since 1992. It took over from the Manche
disposal facility, thus benefiting from 25 years of
experience.
The Ecothèque is housed in a building with 1,400 sq. m.
of floor space, designed and equipped for preparing
and storing samples taken by the Perennial Observatory
of the Environment (OPE). Preparation entails taking
samples, packaging them for storage, and ensuring their
identification in a database. All samples will be stored
at this facility, the only one of its kind in France. The
Andra’s Ecothèque continues the tradition of the world’s
leading specimen banks and is part of the International
Environmental Specimen Bank Group.
(call free from a land line in France)
Find out more on:www.andra.fr/andra-meusehautemarne
Environmental monitoring
Centres industriels de l’Andra dans l’Aube
P 7 • 10200 Soulaines-Dhuys - France
B
Before each site was opened, Andra recorded the initial situation, which is used to describe the
main features and their surroundings. The reports are the baseline for the analyses performed
during the operation and monitoring phases, enabling Andra to check that its activities only have
a slight impact on the environment; a wide range of samples is taken to analyse the quality of the
water, air, soil, flora and fauna. In 2012, over 1,500 analyses in the vicinity of the Cires facility,
over 14,000 measurements in and around the CSA, and over 10,000 analyses in and around
the CSM.
To visit the centers: 0 800 314 151
(call free from a land line in France)
Find out more on:
www.andra.fr/andra-aube
Water quality monitoring station,
part of the observatory system.
12
> The Ecothèque
If Cigeo is licensed, a monitoring plan will also be set up around the facility, under the ASN supervision. This regulatory monitoring will be supplemented by observations carried out as part of activities
of the Perennial Observatory of the Environment (OPE), which brings together a variety of environmental observation, experimentation and protection systems. This certified facility has connections
with many national and international scientific networks.
13
GLOSSARY
A
Activity: level of radioactivity. Measured in
becquerels.
Atom: element making up matter (constitutes air,
water, earth, living things etc.).
Each atom is made up of a nucleus (protons
and neutrons) with electrons orbiting around it.
B
Becquerel (Bq): measurement unit of the level
of radioactivity, named after Henri Becquerel who
discovered radioactivity at the end of the nineteenth
century.
D
example) are stable and are not radioactive. Others,
such as plutonium, are unstable and spontaneously
transform into other atoms (which may or may not be
stable). As they transform, they release surplus energy
in the form of radiation, until such time as they become
stable again: this phenomenon is called radioactivity.
Radiation: radioactive atoms emit radiation with
widely differing types of energy. There are three main
types of radiation which are penetrating to varying
degrees.
Alpha radiation, which travels a few centimetres
through air, is stopped simply by a sheet of paper.
Beta radiation travels several metres in air. It is
stopped by a sheet of aluminium or a pane of glass.
Gamma radiation, which is of the same type as
X-rays but with far more energy, is stopped by several
centimetres of lead or several decimetres of concrete.
Opening of the Manche disposal
facility (surface facility). It stopped
receiving waste in 1994 and is now
in the active monitoring phase
1979
Creation of Andra within the CEA
1991
Act of 30th December, the first in
France, concerning the responsibility
for and management of radioactive
waste. It gave Andra its status as
an industrial and commercial public
body, independent of radioactive
waste producers
1992
1999
G
Reversibility: according to the 2006 Planning Act,
deep disposal of intermediate-level long-lived waste
and high-level waste must be reversible for at least
100 years. Reversibility consists in leaving future
generations the option of modifying or altering the
disposal process, for example by retrieving packages
from disposal facilities if another management mode
becomes available. A new Act will specify reversibility
conditions.
around the fuel from the first nuclear reactors, which
have now been shut down.
S
management of radioactive waste.
The safety of the disposal facility depends on three
elements: the packages containing the waste, the
disposal structures in which the packages are placed
and the site geology which constitutes a natural
barrier.
Disposal structure: structure in which waste
packages are placed.
Graphite waste: mainly made up of the sleeves
P
Package: container in which radioactive waste is
placed usually immobilised in a “matrix” (concrete or
glass).
R
Radioactive half-life (or period): average time
after which a radioactive atom naturally loses half of
its activity. Thus the activity of a radioactive product
is divided by four after two half-lives and by eight after
three half-lives. After ten half-lives, the activity has
been divided by 1,000.
A distinction is made between waste in which the main
radioactive atoms have a short half-life (up to and
including 31 years), and waste in which these main
radioactive atoms have a long half life (31 years and over).
The 31-year cut-off was determined by the radioactive halflife of caesium 137. It is generally considered that the first
category is no longer dangerous after 300 years.
Sievert (Sv): measurement unit for the biological
effects on humans of exposure to radioactivity.
According to regulations, the annual dose from
activities in the nuclear industry must be as low as
possible and not exceed 1 mSv for the public. By way
of comparison, in France, the average annual exposure
to naturally occurring radioactivity is 2.4 mSv, and 1.1
mSv for artificial radioactivity (exposure from medical
procedures).
A dose of 1 mSv is: 17 months in the Paris
area, 7 Paris-San Francisco return flights,
the annual average from medical radiology
procedures in France per member of the
population.
Storage: temporary waste management solution for
radioactive waste, before its disposal.
in radioactive waste management in France
1969
Radium-bearing waste: mainly made up of earth
contaminated with radium from the cleaning up
of polluted industrial sites, and materials from the
processing of ore containing uranium or thorium.
Disposal: long-term solution for industrial
14
Radioactivity: most atoms (such as hydrogen for
Key dates
Low- and intermediate-level shortlived waste disposal facility (CSA surface facility) opened in the Aube
Licensing of the Meuse/Haute-Marne
underground research laboratory to
study the feasibility of deep disposal
of intermediate-level/long-lived and
high-level waste
2001
> First four-year contract between the
State and Andra, defining the Agency’s
functions
> Dual ISO 9001 and ISO 14001
certification obtained
2006
Parliamentary debate on the
long-term solutions for management
of radioactive waste, with the 28th
June Planning Act being passed to
extend the role and duties of Andra
2007
Permanent Environmental Observatory
set up
> Launch of the website:
dechets-radioactifs.com
> OHSAS 18001 certification
2011
Launch of Cigéo project's preliminary
phase
2012
Call for applications by local
authorities for siting of a disposal
facility for low-level/long-lived
waste (about forty applications were
received over the year)
> Commissioning of Collection and
Storage installations for nonnuclear-power waste in the Cires
centre (Collection, Storage and
Disposal Facility) in the Aube
> Publication of the latest edition
of National Inventory of Radioactive
Materials and Waste
2009
2013
2008
> Withdrawal of both towns
selected for the LLW-LL project, due
to pressure from opponents
2010
> Publication of the 2010-2012
> Public debate on the Cigéo project,
organised by the French National
Public Debate Commission
> Launch of the website:
cigeo.com
National radioactive materials and waste
management plan (PNGMDR)
> Validation by the Government of an
area of about 30 km2 proposed by Andra
for siting Cigéo, the geological disposal
facility for long-lived intermediate-level
waste and high-level waste
2003
> Commissioning of the very-low-level
waste disposal facility (Cires - surface
facility)
> The Manche disposal facility
officially entered its monitoring phase
2005
Submission to the authorities of a
synthesis report (Dossier 2005) on
the feasibility of deep reversible
disposal of long-lived and intermediate-level and high-level radioactive
waste
2005/2006
Public debate on overall options
with respect to management of HLW
and ILW-LL
The website dechets-radioactifs.com shows in a didactic,
clear and comprehensive way, the complete range of issues
associated with radioactive waste, from use of the properties
of radioactivity, up until the disposal stage.
Anyone concerned by this topic will find simple answers to
legitimate questions on an interface that is both entertaining
and easy to access.
15
1/7, rue Jean-Monnet
F-92298 Châtenay-Malabry cedex - France
Tel. +33 (0)146 118 000
www.andra.fr/international
© Andra • 337J VA • Updated: august 2014 • DCOM 14.0155• 9 300 copies • Photo credits: 4 vents, P. Bourguignon, P. Demail, V. Duterme, Empreinte Corporate, Les films Roger Leenhardt, E.Gaffard, P. Maurein, F. Mercenier, Studio Durey, D.Vogel, Zorilla
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Radioactive waste management agency