ASN Report 2018

possibilities, geological investigations on a site identified by Andra, design studies and preliminary safety analyses) so that in 2016 the State can specify guidelines for the management of LLW-LL waste. Thus, the holders of LLW-LL waste have made progress in the characterisation of their waste and in the processing possibilities, particularly with regard to graphite waste and some types of bituminised waste. More specifically, the radiological inventory of the chlorine-36 and iodine-129 in this waste has been downwardly revised to a considerable extent. As part of the PNGMDR, Andra submitted a report in July 2015  containing: ∙ ∙ proposals of choices of management scenarios for graphite waste and bituminous waste; ∙ ∙ preliminary design studies covering the disposal options referred to as “intact cover disposal” and “reworked cover disposal”; ∙ ∙ the inventory of the waste to be emplaced in it and the implementation schedule. ASN issued an opinion 2016-AV-264 on Andra’s interim report on the disposal project for LLW-LL waste on 29 March 2016. Andra will have to detail more specifically the design assumptions for the LLW-LL repository, the assessment of the safety of the repository during its operation and after closure, the quality and performance of the chosen geological formation and the consolidation of the inventory of waste that could be emplaced on the studied site. At the same time, ASN has started revising the general safety guidelines notice of 2008. A working group bringing together ASN, IRSN, Andra, the LLW-LL waste producers and representatives of civil society was thus set up in Autumn 2018. Lastly, in accordance with Article 7 of the Decree of 27 December 2013, Orano Cycle has submitted a study on the long-term management of the Malvési site waste already produced, stored in BNI 175 - Écrin. Various envisaged disposal concepts are presented. ASN will examine this study in 2019. 1.3.4  –  Management of high-level and intermediate- level, long-lived waste Following on from the Act of 30 December 1991, the Act of 28 June 2006 provides for the research into the management of HLW and ILW-LL radioactive waste to be continued along three complementary lines: separation and transmutation of the long-lived radionuclides, interim storage and reversible deep geological disposal. • Separation/Transmutation Separation/transmutation processes aim to isolate and then transform the long-lived radionuclides in radioactive waste into shorter-lived radionuclides or even stable elements. The transmutation of the minor actinides contained in the waste is likely to have an impact on the size of the disposal facility, by reducing both the heating power, the harmfulness of the packages placed in it and the repository inventory. Despite this however, the impact of the disposal facility on the biosphere, which originates essentially from the mobility of the fission and activation products, would not be significantly reduced. ASN issued an opinion 2016-AV-0259 on 25 February 2016 based on the interim report on the industrial prospects of the separation/transmutation processes submitted by the CEA in 2015 under the PNGMDR. It considers that the expected gains from the transmutation of minor actinides in terms of safety, radiation protection and waste management do not appear to be decisive, particularly given the resulting constraints on the fuel cycle facilities, the reactors and the transport operations, which would involve highly radioactive materials at all stages of the fuel cycle. ASN also considers that these gains would not eliminate the need for a deep disposal repository and could only bring a tangible reduction in the footprint of a future repository if a sufficiently large fleet of fast-neutron breeder reactors were to be operated for at least one hundred years to ensure the consistency of the cycle as a whole. • Storage
 The second line of research and studies in the Act of 28 June 2006 concerns the storage of waste. The long-term storage of high-level long-lived waste, which was one of the lines of research provided for in the Act of 30 December 1991, has not be retained as a definitive management solution for this type of radioactive waste. Storage facilities are nevertheless indispensable pending commissioning of the deep geological disposal facility, to allow the cooling of certain types of waste and then to accompany the industrial operation of the disposal facility, which will develop in stages. Furthermore, if operations to remove emplaced packages were to be decided on in the context of the reversibility of the repository, storage facilities would be needed. Reception of the first radioactive waste packages for deep geological disposal is now planned for around 2030. The Act of 28 June 2006 tasked Andra with coordinating the research and studies on the storage of HL and ILW-LL waste, which are therefore part of the approach of complementarity with the reversible repository. This law stipulated more specifically that the research and studies on storage should, by 2015 at the latest, allow new storage facilities to be created or existing facilities to be modified to meet the needs identified by the PNGMDR, particularly in terms of capacity and duration.   • Progress in storage In 2013, Andra submitted a report on the research and studies carried out. This report more particularly presented the established inventory of future storage needs, the exploration of the complementarity between storage and disposal, studies and research on engineering and on the phenomenological behaviour of the storage facilities and a review of innovative technical options. From 2013 to 2015, Andra conducted more in-depth studies into storage concepts linked to repository reversibility. This concerns facilities which, if necessary, would accept packages removed from the repository. For such facilities, Andra looked for versatility which would allow simultaneous or successive storage of packages of various types in their primary form or placed in disposal overpacks. In its study submitted in 2013, Andra stated that it had stopped its research on near-surface storage facilities. It justified abandoning this operation in particular because of the greater complexity of this type of facility (consideration of the presence of underground water and the need for ventilation if exothermal waste was emplaced, surveillance of the civil engineering structures) and the lower operating flexibility. In the light of industrial experience, research and its studies, Andra issued recommendations in 2014 for the design of future storage facilities that are complementary to disposal. They concern more specifically the service life of the facilities (up to about a hundred years), their monitoring and surveillance and their modularity. Orano Cycle has integrated some of the recommendations in the design of the extension of the vitrified waste storage facilities at La Hague (E/EV-LH building) intended for high-level waste and situated in BNI 116. This extension comprises two pits: 30 and 40, commissioned in 2015 and 2017 respectively. 360  ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2018 14 – RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND CONTAMINATED SITES AND SOILS