National plan on management of radioactive materials and waste (PNGMDR)

The law of 28 June 2006 on sustainable management of radioactive materials and waste applies to the Government to draw up every three years a national plan on management of radioactive materials and waste (PNGMDR). The first of these plans has been laid down and assigned to the parliament in March 2007. The Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (OPECST) was instructed to assess this first PNGMDR, available on its internet website www.senat.fr/opecst/.
 
The purpose of the PNGMDR is to draw up a balance on existing management measures of radioactive materials and waste, to make an inventory on foreseeable needs for storage and waste disposal, to indicate the necessary capacities for such installations and the duration of storage and, for the radioactive wastes for which a definitive management way does not still exist, to determine the objectives to reach.
 
Such a plan has been already announced by the Ministry of Ecology and sustainable Development in 2003, June 4th. The Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) at that time prepared, in the framework of a multi-party working group taking operators, administrations and NGOs into partnership, a first draft of PNGMDR which was published on its internet website during the second semester 2005 for consulting.
 
Since the act of 28 June 2006, the draft of PNGMDR has been updated, in particular to take into account articles 3 and 4 of the lawprescribing objectives to reach in order to determine some management solutions for different categories of radioactive waste, including high and intermediate level wastes in the long term. The new draft of PNGMDR has been prepared under the care of ASN and the Ministry of Industry (Office of Energy and Raw materials -DGEMP) and presented during a meeting of the working group in October 2006.
 
The decree which prescribes actions connected to the plan has been published the 18 April 2008. In connection with DGEMP, ASN will go on leading the multi-party working group which will be in charge in future to follow the progress report acted in the PNGMDR and to prepare a new draft for 2009.