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The Global Crisis of Nuclear Waste

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The Global Crisis of Nuclear Waste THE GLOBAL A REPORT COMMISSIONED CRISIS BY GP FRANCE OF NUCLEAR WASTE AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHIES 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 1. NUCLEAR WASTE: THE SITUATION TODAY 16 2. BELGIUM 34 3. FRANCE 45 4. JAPAN 59 5. SWEDEN AND FINLAND 68 6. UK 86 7. USA 94 This report was published in November 2018 by Greenpeace France Authors: Pete Roche, Bertrand Thuillier, Bernard Laponche, Miles Goldstick, Johann Swahn, Hideyuki Ban and Robert Alvarez Coordination: Shaun Burnie, Greenpeace Germany Graphic design: Alexandra Bausch, büreau-abcd.com Translations: Jean-Luc Thierry, Emma Morton Saliou Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHIES chapitre 3 — France 3 BIOGRAPHIES ROBERT ALVAREZ an Associate Fellow at the Institute BERNARD LAPONCHE for Policy Studies, in Washington DC. Alvarez served as Paris Polytechnic School engineer, State Doctor in Nu- senior policy adviser to the U.S. Energy Department’s clear Reactor Physics, PhD in Energy Economics, Ber- secretary and deputy assistant secretary for national se- nard Laponche worked at the Atomic Energy Commis- curity and the environment from 1993 to 1999. During sion (CEA) in the 1960s and 1970s. Union representative this tenure, he led teams in North Korea to establish con- at the CFDT in the 1970s, Director and then Director trol of nuclear weapons materials. He also coordinated General of the French Agency for Energy Management the Energy Department’s nuclear material strategic (AFME, nowadays ADEME) from 1982 to 1987, he pur- planning and established the department’s first asset sued from 1988 to 2012 an activity of international con- management program. Before joining the Energy De- sultant (Eastern European countries and Mediterranean, partment, Alvarez served for six years as a senior inves- China ...) in the field of energy efficiency (co-founder of tigator for the US Senate Committee on Governmental “International Council on Energy”, ICE) and was Domi- Affairs, and as one of the Senate’s primary staff experts nique Voynet's technical advisor for energy and nuclear on the US nuclear weapons program. In 1975, Alvarez safety in 1998-99. He is a co-founder and member of the helped found and direct the Environmental Policy Insti- “Global Chance” and “Shared Energy” associations and tute, a respected national public interest organization. co-author of "Energy Efficiency for a Sustainable World" and "Ending Nuclear Energy; why and how”. HIDEYUKI BAN is Co-Director of Citizen’s Nuclear Infor- mation Center (CNIC) in Tokyo. Since 2013, he has been PETE ROCHE a member of the Ministry for Economy, Trade and In- Pete Roche is an energy consultant based in Edinburgh dustry’s Joint Radioactive Waste Working Group of the and policy adviser to the Scottish & UK Nuclear Free Lo- Nuclear Energy Subcommittee, Advisory Committee for cal Authorities. Until April 2004 he was a nuclear cam- Natural Resources and Energy. He is the author of mul- paigner for Greenpeace UK for thirteen years. He has an tiple analysis and the books “Our Path to a Nuclear-Free honours degree in Ecological Sciences from Edinburgh Japan: Policy Outline for a Nuclear Phaseout” (co-autor) University. He was co-founder of the Scottish Campaign and “Critique Japan’s Nuclear Policy Framework”. to Resist the Atomic Menace (SCRAM) in 1976, which or- ganised some of the largest anti-nuclear power demon- MILES GOLDSTICK since 2008 has worked at the Swed- strations in the UK at the Torness nuclear station outside ish Environmental Movement’s Nuclear Waste Secretari- Edinburgh in the 1970s and 80s. For 30 years, he has at (Milkas) a coalition between Friends of the Earth Swe- worked on environmental matters as campaigner, and den and the Swedish Anti-nuclear Movement. Goldstick on energy efficiency matters, both as an installer and as has been researching and writing on the nuclear fuel a consultant. He has represented Greenpeace at interna- cycle since the mid-1970s. He holds a Ph.D. in Ecology tional and national fora, including OSPAR, IMO, and UN and Environmental Protection at the Swedish University meetings, and the BNFL National Stakeholder Dialogue of Agricultural Studies in Uppsala, Sweden. He is the au- in the UK. He was also a member of the UK Govern- thor of multiple analysis, and the book “Wollaston” on ment’s Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal the impact of uranium mining on the native peoples of Emitters, and acted as a consultant for the Committee Saskatchewan, Canada. on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM). More re- cently he has been advising members of the Scottish Parliament on Energy Efficiency and Microgeneration. In his spare time Pete take part in a local ‘logs for labour’ scheme which involves helping with the management of local woodlands to feed his biomass heating system. Biographies 4 BERTRAND THUILLIER is an agronomist and Associate Professor at Polytech Lille in Lille I University. He grad- uated from the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Gri- gnon (INA-PG), former student of the Asian Institute of Management in Manila, Philippines, and holds a PhD of Sciences (Biology) from the University of Reims. After having worked in the military sector, then in the food industry within a research center for 3 years, he has be- comed in the same group the head of the industrial coor- dination to manage the Quality Control, Production, and Logistic operations; he had also have to set up quality assurance plans in Europe, mainly in Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. Now, he manages his own consulting and IT company for the food industry and cosmetics in the field of New Product Development and Product Evaluation; he teaches Sensory Evaluation in different universities, and particularly the method- ological aspects and the corresponding statistics. He was one of the first independent experts to highlight in a very detailed and deep analysis in 2012 the flaws of the Cigéo project in France, pointing in particular the risk of fires, and the weaknesses in the design of the French geological storage project in Bure - All of these men- tioned elements were also recalled in 2017 by the IRSN in its ‘Dossier d’Options de Sureté’ (Safety Options File) Biographies 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY chapitre 3 — France 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FROM MINE TO REACTOR Their toxicity in general terms, both “ radioactive and chemical, is greater Vast volumes of waste rock are produced during urani- by far than any industrial material with um mining. This often contains elevated concentrations of radioisotopes compared to normal rock. Other waste which we have hitherto dealt in this piles consist of ore with too low a grade for processing. or in any other country. These waste piles threaten local populations due to the Johns Hopkins University professor Abel ”Wolman in January 1959 release of radon gas and seepage water containing ra- at the first U.S. congressional inquiry into the subject. dioactive and toxic materials. Uranium mill tailings have through the decades been dumped as sludge in special The international nuclear fuel cycle consists of multiple ponds or piles, where they are abandoned. stages, all of which produce large volumes of nuclear waste. The cycle starts with uranium mining, milling of The mining and milling process removes hazardous ore, conversion of the uranium into feedstock for urani- chemicals from their relatively safe underground lo- um enrichment plants, followed by commercial nuclear cation and converts them to a fine sand, then sludge, reactor operation, leading to high level nuclear spent making them more susceptible to dispersion through- fuel, which is either directly stored, or reprocessed. out the environment. After about 1 million years, the More than sixty years of commercial nuclear programs radioactivity of the tailings and thus its radon releases has produced radioactive elements that will remain haz- will have decreased so that it is only limited by the re- ardous to humans and the environment on a time scale sidual uranium contents, which continuously produces that transcends the geologic era defining the presence new thorium-230. The world’s inventory of uranium mill of human civilization. tailings amounts to 2,352.55 million tonnes as of 2011.1 The predominant reactor type worldwide, the light wa- Greenpeace commissioned some of the world’s lead- ter reactor, depends on uranium fuel that is enriched. ing experts on nuclear waste to produce an overview of The concentration of the fissile isotope uranium-235 in the current status of nuclear waste across the world. As natural uranium is only around 0.71%. To make nuclear the nuclear industry continues to struggle to compete fuel for most reactors this has to be increased to around in the rapidly evolving global energy market, the toxic 3–5% through the operation of uranium enrichment legacy of decades of nuclear reactor operation and all plants. A significant waste product of enrichment opera- the waste that continues to be produced to support it, tions is depleted uranium, with current estimates of 1.7 remains a central element in any debate on the future million tons worldwide. Little if any of this is reused as of nuclear power, including decisions on nuclear reactor nuclear fuel. phase out. For every year of nuclear reactor operation, nuclear waste volumes across the world will continue to be generated. Without exception, all countries reviewed were found lacking a no sustainable and safe solution for managing the vast volumes of nuclear waste. This in- cludes high level spent fuel produced in all nuclear reac- tors, for which to date all efforts to find secure and safe permanent disposal options have failed. Executive Summary 7 SPENT FUEL In addition to direct discharges of nuclear waste via pipelines, and atmospheric releases of radioactivity, re- The next stage in the nuclear fuel chain is the insertion processing produces multiple other waste streams, the of enriched nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors which then most hazardous of which are liquid high level wastes.
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