Based on this opinion, the 2022-2026 edition of the PNGMDR includes actions aiming to: ∙ ensure the reliability of the inventories (by including the legacy RTCU waste stored in Écrin) and the characteristics of the LLW-LL waste; ∙ clarify the saturation time-lines for the LLW-LL storage capacities; ∙ define LLW-LL waste management scenarios and assess their advantages and drawbacks; ∙ continue studies on an RTCU disposal facility, by involving the representatives of the affected or potentially affected localities. It also requires that Andra submit a file presenting the technical and safety options adopted for disposal on the site of the Vendeuvre-Soulaines local authority. 1.3.4 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 high-level and intermediate-level long-lived radioactive waste (HL/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 The report of the Special Public Debates Commission (CPDP) of 25 November 2019 concerning the public debate prior to the 5th edition of the PNGMDR concludes in particular that “there are two options, each one defended by a certain number of the actors: deep geological disposal and interim sub-surface storage for a sufficient length of time to allow progress to be made in transmutation research in order to reduce the radioactivity of the waste”. 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 would 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 radionuclides contained in the fission and activation products, would not be significantly reduced. In its opinion 2020-AV-0369 of 1 December 2020, ASN recalls that the prospects for transmutation on an industrial scale of the waste already conditioned in the Cigéo reference inventory are not credible. It considers that, although transmutation studies should be continued, they should concern radioactive substances currently qualified as materials or the waste produced by a future fleet of reactors and that they should be carried out with a view to developing complete solutions, including the disposal of the waste resulting from transmutation and offering a high level of safety. 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 HLW-LL waste, which was one of the lines of research provided for in the Act of 30 December 1991, has not been retained as a definitive management solution for this 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 scheduled for around 2040. 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 warehouses and a review of innovative technical options. From 2013 to 2015, Andra furthered the study 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 the study it submitted in 2013, Andra stated that it had stopped its research into 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. 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 HLW and situated in the UP3-A plant (BNI 116). This extension comprises three pits: 30, 40 and 50, commissioned in 2015, 2017 and 2022 respectively. Within the framework of the PNGMDR 2013-2015, and after presenting the inventory of HL- and ILW-LL waste packages intended for Cigéo 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. 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 twenty years at least. 374 ASN Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2023 • 15 • Radioactive waste and contaminated sites and soils
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