An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts recently completed a safety evaluation ahead of France’s expected licensing decision in 2018 for the Cigéo deep geological repository, which will house the country’s high-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste.
The French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (ANDRA) is leading the €25 billion ($26.1 billion) program to build the storage facility, which is projected to begin operation in 2025, starting with a pilot phase. The facility, to be built along the boundaries of the Meuse and Haute-Marne districts in northeast France, would be the world’s first high-level waste disposal facility, though Finland and Sweden have also made significant progress in developing their own sites.
The review team included representatives from Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Finland, the U.K., the U.S., and Belgium, and focused on the strategy for research and development and safety assessment approaches for the repository. In its report released Monday, the team described France’s 2018 licensing timeline as “challenging,” while also offering recommendations for optimizing safety of the facility. The experts suggested that ANDRA consider water conducting features in the Callovo-Oxfordian (COX) formations of the region; further analyze high-level-waste container failure; and further examine microbial activity in the COX.
Safety has been a concern for the project, following an accident in January, when one person was killed and another injured during a tunnel collapse. Reuters reported the incident occurred while crews were taking measurements at the front of a 500-meter-deep tunnel at the site in Bure. ANDRA had been digging shafts to test soil formations for the repository.
The French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) requested the IAEA review, which was conducted from Nov. 6-15. The team offered various recommendations for data gathering, updating, and preservation. It took into account seismic activity in the region and climate change, among other areas of concern.
IAEA Requests National Radioactive Waste Disposal Plans
The IAEA is encouraging member governments to design national plans for the management of radioactive waste, including storage and final disposition.
Representatives from more than 60 countries discussed radioactive waste disposal last month in Vienna, Austria, during the IAEA’s International Conference on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. Topics during the five-day conference, according to an IAEA report on Dec. 16, included radioactive waste management; waste processing; storage; disposal of low-, intermediate-, and high-level waste; disposal of disused radioactive sources; and post-accident waste management.
Officials also discussed the progress, or lack of progress, on the establishment of high-level waste and spent fuel disposal facilities. Repository projects are underway or planned in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. Finland and Sweden have operating repositories, while the U.S. has an operating repository in the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, which stores transuranic waste from DOE sites around the country. No country has yet successfully developed and operated a high-level waste disposal facility.
Gerard Bruno, head of the Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management Unit at the IAEA, noted during the conference the progress of overall management of all types of radioactive waste internationally. He shared an optimistic outlook for high-level waste and spent fuel facilities.
“The establishment of such facilities does take a long time, and we should allow them to take as long as they require,” he said. “In the meantime, our understanding of long-term safety is improving.”
While officials agreed that interim storage is necessary for safely storing waste in a timely manner, disposal should be the end goal that utilities, regulators, and lawmakers pursue.
“Disposal remains, in some cases, a complex and long process,” Bruno said.
