NATIONAL ASSESSMENT BOARD FOR RESEARCH AND THE STUDIES INTO THE MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND MATERIALS Instituted by the law n°2006-739 of June 28, 2006 NATIONAL ASSESSMENT BOARD ASSESSMENT REPORT NO 12 Président: Jean-Claude DUPLESSY Vice-Présidents: Maurice LEROY & Gilles PIJAUDIER-CABOT General Secretary & Scientific Advisor: Stanislas POMMERET Administrative secretary: Véronique ADA-FAUCHEUX & Florence LEDOUX www.cne2.fr JUNE 2018 244 boulevard Saint-Germain • 75007 Paris • Phone: +33 (0)1 44 49 80 93 & +33 (0)1 44 49 80 94 ISSN : 2257-5758 NATIONAL ASSESSMENT BOARD Members of National Assessment Board: Jean-Claude DUPLESSY Anna CRETI Frank DECONINCK Pierre DEMEULENAERE Robert GUILLAUMONT Vincent LAGNEAU Maurice LAURENT Emmanuel LEDOUX* Mickaële LE RAVALEC Maurice LEROY José-Luis MARTINEZ Gilles PIJAUDIER-CABOT Claes THEGERSTRÖM General Secretary & Scientific Advisor: Stanislas POMMERET Honorary President: Bernard TISSOT Administrative secretary: Véronique ADA-FAUCHEUX Florence LEDOUX * Invited Expert NATIONAL ASSESSMENT BOARD FOR RESEARCH AND STUDIES INTO THE MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS AND WASTE Established by law No. 2006-739 of 28 June 2006 ASSESSMENT REPORT No. 12 JUNE 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD: SETTING A DIRECTION .......................................................................................................... 5 SUMMARY – CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................ 7 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER I: CIGÉO ................................................................................................................................... 13 1.1 CIGÉO LICENSING PROCEDURE ............................................................................................................... 13 1.1.1 Specific characteristics of Cigéo ............................................................................................. 13 1.1.2 Impact of the safety options dossier on preparation of the DAC ........................................... 14 1.2 CURRENT STATE OF THE PROJECT ........................................................................................................... 14 1.3 INVENTORY OF CIGÉO WASTE ................................................................................................................ 15 1.4 THE KNOWLEDGE BASE ........................................................................................................................ 16 1.4.1 A knowledge base to support the sizing of Cigéo .................................................................. 16 1.4.2 The research themes planned for the DAC ............................................................................ 17 1.5 BITUMENS ......................................................................................................................................... 19 1.5.1 Brief history ............................................................................................................................ 20 1.5.2 Studies and research under way ............................................................................................ 20 1.5.3 Conclusions and recommendations ....................................................................................... 20 1.6 LONG-TERM SAFETY OF CIGÉO ............................................................................................................... 21 1.7 SURVEILLANCE OF CIGÉO IN OPERATION ................................................................................................... 21 1.8 THE DIGITAL MODEL OF CIGÉO ............................................................................................................... 22 1.9 CIGÉO COSTS AND FINANCIAL ENGINEERING ............................................................................................. 23 1.9.1 Contract engineering ............................................................................................................. 23 1.9.2 Provisions made by waste producers ..................................................................................... 23 1.10 THE NEED TO DECIDE ........................................................................................................................... 24 1.10.1 Storage or disposal? .............................................................................................................. 24 1.10.2 The risk of putting off the decision ........................................................................................ 25 1.10.3 The institutional context of decision-making ......................................................................... 25 CHAPTER II: SEPARATION AND TRANSMUTATION .................................................................................. 27 2.1 MATERIAL AND WASTE MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................... 27 2.2 ASTRID ............................................................................................................................................. 27 2.2.1 Design of the reactor ............................................................................................................. 28 2.2.2 Cycle facilities ........................................................................................................................ 28 2.2.3 Increased consumption of plutonium .................................................................................... 28 2.2.4 Separation and Transmutation .............................................................................................. 28 2.3 PROPOSED EVOLUTION OF THE ASTRID PROJECT ........................................................................................ 29 2.4 SCENARIOS AND PLUTONIUM RECOVERY .................................................................................................. 30 2.4.1 Scenarios for deploying a fleet of FNRs and their consequences ........................................... 30 2.4.2 Multi-recycling of plutonium in PWRs ................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER III: WASTE MANAGEMENT ....................................................................................................... 31 3.1 VERY LOW TO VERY VERY LOW LEVEL WASTE ............................................................................................. 31 3.2 TENORM WASTE ................................................................................................................................. 32 3.3 LLLW .............................................................................................................................................. 32 3.4 WASTE MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................................................ 32 3.4.1 Storage................................................................................................................................... 32 3.4.2 Clean-up & dismantling ......................................................................................................... 33 3.5 DISMANTLING STRATEGY ...................................................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER IV: INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA ............................................................................................. 35 4.1 EXCLUSION, EXEMPTION, RELEASE, NORM, TENORM – INTERNATIONAL APPROACH. ....................................... 35 4.1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 35 4.1.2 Some internationally accepted definitions ............................................................................ 35 4.1.3 International approaches ...................................................................................................... 36 4.2 THE REPOSITORY PROJECT IN SWEDEN ..................................................................................................... 37 4.2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 37 4.2.2 Opinion of the Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) ................................................................... 37 4.2.3 Opinion of the Environmental Court ...................................................................................... 37 4.2.4 Next step ................................................................................................................................ 38 4.3 STUDY MISSION TO SWEDEN AND FINLAND .............................................................................................. 38 4.3.1 Energy systems ...................................................................................................................... 38 4.3.2 Waste management .............................................................................................................. 39 4.3.3 The process of societal acceptance ........................................................................................ 40 4.3.4 Recycling of metallic waste .................................................................................................... 43 APPENDIX I: BOARD ACTIVITY ................................................................................................................