engineering structures) and the lower operating flexibility. The multi-criteria analysis submitted in 2018 did not call into question these conclusions. 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 has integrated some of the recommendations in the design of the extension of the glass storage facilities at La Hague (E-EV-LH) intended for HL waste and situated in BNI 116. This extension comprises two pits: 30 and 40, commissioned in 2015 and 2017 respectively. Within the framework of the PNGMDR 2013-2015, and after presenting the inventory of HLW and ILW-LL waste packages intended for Cigéo as at the end of 2013 and the status of the existing storage locations, the producers more specifically analysed the fundamental elements enabling waste package storage needs to be identified. In its opinion 2020-AV-0369 of 1 December 2020 on the studies concerning the management of HL and ILW-LL radioactive waste, ASN noted that the dates at which the existing storage facility capacities reach saturation and the future storage needs for the next twenty years had on the whole been well identified by the waste producers. It did however indicate that the storage capacity estimates should be consolidated by all the producers by integrating margins to allow for any contingencies affecting the waste management routes concerned. The work carried out under the PNGMDR 2016-2018 The studies required by the PNGMDR 2016-2018 focus on the analysis of the storage needs for HL and ILW-LL waste packages and take up the broad lines of the ASN opinion of 25 February 2016. Article D. 542-79 of the Environment Code, introduced by the Decree of 23 February 2017 relative to the provisions of the PNGMDR 2016-2018, stipulates that the holders of spent fuel and HL and ILW-LL radioactive waste must keep up to date the availability status of the storage capacities for these substances by waste category and identify the future storage capacity needs for the next 20 years at least. In accordance with Article 53 of the Order of 23 February 2017, the CEA, EDF and Orano have defined the future storage needs for all families of HL and ILW-LL waste, until 2040. The CEA, EDF and Orano have also studied, within this context, how sensitive the storage needs are to shifts in the Cigéo schedule. In its opinion 2020-AV-0369 of 1 December 2020, ASN estimates in this respect that the dates of saturation of the existing storage capacities and the future storage needs until 2040 have on the whole been well identified by the producers. Nevertheless, the storage capacity estimates must be consolidated by all the waste producers, integrating margins to cope with any contingencies affecting the waste management routes concerned and thereby be able to anticipate the needs for additional storage capacities and the corresponding licensing procedures. Article 52 of the Order of 23 February 2017 requires Andra to substantiate the reasons that led it to reject the option of designing near-surface storage facilities. In response to this requirement, in 2018 Andra submitted a comparative study of the different types of storage it has studied. In its opinion 2020-AV‑0369 of 1 December 2020, ASN confirms that near-surface storage facilities have no decisive advantage in terms of nuclear safety and radiation protection over surface storage facilities. The PNGMDR 2016-2018 sets out several guidelines for the design of HL and ILW-LL waste storage facilities (significant design margins, simple and modular architecture favouring passive systems, provisions for controlling the ambient storage conditions in normal, incident and accident situations, provisions for monitoring and surveillance and deviation management defined at the design stage, provisions for preserving the memory, etc.). ASN will be attentive to the integration of these recommendations in the new facilities that will be necessary pending commissioning of Cigéo. Reversible deep geological disposal Deep geological disposal is called out by Article L. 542-1-2 of the Environment Code, which stipulates that “after storage, ultimate radioactive waste which, for nuclear safety or radiation protection reasons, cannot be disposed of on the surface or at shallow depth, shall be disposed of in a deep geological repository”. The Act of 28 June 2006 assigns Andra the task of devising a project for a deep geological disposal facility which shall be a BNI, governed by the regulations specific to this type of installation, and as such shall be subject to ASN oversight. The principle of this type of disposal Deep geological disposal of radioactive waste consists in emplacing the radioactive waste in an underground facility specially designed for this purpose, complying with the principle of reversibility. The characteristics of the geological layer are intended to confine the radioactive substances contained in this waste. Such a disposal facility –unlike storage facilities– must be designed such that long-term safety is ensured passively, that is to say without depending on human actions (such as monitoring or maintenance activities) which require oversight, the durability of which cannot be guaranteed beyond a limited period of time. Lastly, the depth of the disposal structures must be such that they cannot be significantly affected by the expected external natural phenomena (erosion, climate change, earthquakes, etc.) or by human activities. In 1991, ASN published Basic Safety Rule RFS III-2-f defining the objectives to be set in the design and works phases for final disposal of radioactive waste in deep geological formations, in order to ensure safety after the operational life of the repository. In 2008 it published an update of this document in the form of a safety Guide relative to radioactive waste disposal in deep geological formations (ASN Guide No. 1). The conditions of creation of a reversible deep geological repository for HL and ILW-LL radioactive waste were specified by the Act of 25 July 2016, which defines the principle of reversibility, introduces the industrial pilot phase before complete commissioning of Cigéo and brings schedule adaptations concerning the deployment of Cigéo. This Act defines reversibility as “the ability, for successive generations, to either continue the construction and then the operation of successive sections of a disposal facility, or to reassess previous choices and change the management solutions. Reversibility is materialised by the progressive nature of the construction, the adaptability of the design and the operational flexibility of placing radioactive waste in a deep geological repository which can integrate technological progress and adapt to possible changes in waste inventory following a change in energy policy. It includes the possibility of retrieving waste packages from the repository under conditions and over a time frame that are consistent with the operating strategy and the closure of the repository”. In its opinion 2016-AV-0267 of 31 May 2016 relative to the reversibility of the deep geological disposal of radioactive waste, ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2021 353 14 – RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND CONTAMINATED SITES AND SOILS 08 07 13 04 10 06 12 14 03 09 05 11 02 AP 01
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