| Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management
- Fact Sheet
France’s Radioactive Waste Management Program
Low-level radioactive waste
From 1969 to 1994, the Manche Disposal Facility was the country’s first
short-lived, low-, and medium-level radioactive waste disposal site. In
1992, the Centre de l’Aube Disposal Facility began accepting low-level
radioactive waste produced by power plants, research, industry, and medicine.
Centre de l’Aube is currently France’s site for low-level radioactive
waste disposal.
Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste
Spent nuclear fuel is kept for one year on site in specially constructed
storage pools. Following storage, spent nuclear fuel is transported to
the La Hague and Marcoule reprocessing plants and stored in pools for
two to three years.
Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel
France reprocesses its own spent nuclear fuel. Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands,
Switzerland, and Japan also send, or have sent in the past, spent nuclear
fuel to France for reprocessing. High-level reprocessed waste is vitrified
(solidified) and stored at La Hague for several decades, where it awaits
final geologic disposal.
Transporting radioactive waste
France has more than 30 years of experience transporting radioactive waste.
Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste are shipped by rail
within France; trucks carry the materials over short distances. Five ships
transport the material intercoastally. Spent nuclear fuel arrives at La
Hague by train in specially designed rail cars, which are admitted without
restriction into normal railway traffic.
Deep geologic disposal plans
A research program to study high-level radioactive waste disposal began
with legislation enacted in 1991. The French Waste Management Research
Act of December 1991 authorized 15-year studies of three management options
for high-level or long half-life radioactive waste. They included separation
and/or transmutation, long-term storage, and geologic disposal. One site
under consideration for deep geologic disposal in clay is currently being
studied. The French are also searching for a granite site to research.
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management
Yucca Mountain Project
1551 Hillshire Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89134
1-800-225-6972
http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov
DOE/YMP-0411
June 2001 |