Waste management issues at national level

With regard to the other categories of radioactive waste, the strategy is defined in the 2006 Planning Act on the sustainable management of radioactive materials and waste (Act 2006-739 of 28 June 2006). This Act is a consequence of the Waste Act n° 91-1381 of 30 December 1991 which stipulated that, in 2006 at the latest, the government shall submit to Parliament an overall assessment of the research concerning high-level, long-lived waste, with a bill authorizing, if appropriate, the creation of a disposal facility for these categories of radioactive waste. At the same time, the 2006 Planning Act widens the field of action initially aimed at by the December 1991 Waste Act.

The 2006 Planning Act stipulates that for high-level waste and long-lived intermediate-level waste the research and studies have to be pursued according to three complementary venues, which were already mentioned as R&D venues in the December 1991 Waste Act:

• partitioning and transmutation of long-lived elements, so that an assessment can be made in 2012 of the industrial prospects of reactors allowing transmutation and a prototype installation set in operation before 31 December 2020;
• reversible disposal in deep geological formations, in order that a license application can be filed in 2015, and, subject to such an authorization, the repository can be commissioned in 2025;
• storage, in order, at least in 2015, to create new storage installations or modify existing ones to meet the needs.

The 2006 Planning Act defines as well, with some milestones, the programme for the other types of radioactive waste which do not have yet a final solution (radium-bearing and graphite waste, tritium-containing waste, sealed sources) and for the long-term impact of the disposal sites of uranium mining waste and implementation of a strengthened radiological surveillance plan at these sites.

It stipulates that a National Plan for the management of radioactive materials and waste shall be drawn up before 31 December 2006 and, afterwards, shall be updated every three years.

There are also articles concerning various topics (no disposal in France of foreign radioactive waste, rules concerning the introduction in France of spent fuel and its reprocessing, a National Review Board in charge with evaluating, annually, the progress of research and studies with reference to the above-mentioned National Plan).

It is to be noted that this 2006 Planning Act is the result of the following process concerning high-level and long-lived intermediate-level radioactive waste management which has been initiated since 1991:

• selection of candidate sites for investigations and possible siting of underground laboratories (by the so-called MP Bataille mediation mission) by 1993,
• geological investigations from the surface at four sites (by Andra) from 1994 until 1996,
• license application filed in 1996 for construction of three underground laboratories and public inquiries in 1997,
• governmental authorization in 1998, with Decree issued in 1999, for one underground laboratory in the East of France, to investigate a clay formation with a mandatory reversibility rationale for disposal studies,
• new attempt for a candidate site in an outcropping granitic formation, which ended up unsuccessful, and decision to continue on generic studies on granite, 
• construction of the underground laboratory in the East of France (by Andra), 
• research concerning reversible geological disposal (notably by means of the underground laboratory) and studies (design of repository, knowledge of waste packages and engineered barriers behaviour, safety analysis,..), having led to i) two intermediate reports issued by Andra, respectively the Dossier 2001 Argile confirming that there was no element ruling out geological disposal in the clay formation (Callovo-Oxfordian argillite of Eastern France near Bure) and the Dossier 2002 Granite with the status of studies ii) a basic feasibility report concerning reversible geological disposal in the Callovo-Oxfordian argillite of Bure “Dossier 2005 Argile” (by Andra) and iii) a generic report on the assets of French granitic formations for geological disposal “Dossier 2005 Granite” (by Andra),
• research concerning partitioning and transmutation, including final report in 2005 (by CEA),
• research concerning long-term storage, including final report in 2005 (by CEA),
• annual assessment by the National Review Board, CNE, and final report at the beginning of 2006,
• periodic review by the ASN and its technical supports IRSN and Advisory committee, and advice to the government at the beginning of 2006, 
• publication in January 2006 of the IRSN opinion on the feasibility of a possible geological repository in the Callovo-Oxfordian clay formation of the Bure site investigated by Andra,
•  upon request by the French government, two international Peer Reviews have been carried out under the NEA aegis and concerned respectively the Dossier 2005 Argile¹ (Andra) and the Partitioning and Transmutation Report (CEA). Draft conclusions were issued by December 2005.
• report, in March 2005, of the Parliamentary Office for Evaluation of Scientific and Technical Choices (OPECST),
• a public debate organized by the “Commission Nationale du Débat Public” (CNDP) from September 2005 to the end of December 2005 (and a report at the beginning of 2006),
•  A draft version in 2005 of a National Plan for the management of radioactive materials and waste, launched by the Ministry of Environment (this supervising ministry became in 2006 the the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Territorial Planning MEEDDAT), and led by the ASN.

¹ The Dossier 2001 Argile, apart from institutional reviews (ASN with IRSN and CNE) was as well evaluated through an international Peer Review under NEA aegis upon the French government request in order to provide a first international feed-back before the 2005 milestone reporting.