Other issues

According to the 2006 Planning Act on the sustainable management of radioactive materials and waste (Act 2006-739 of 28 June 2006):

• Processes allowing the disposal of spent sealed sources at existing or to-be-built centres shall be finalized by 2008, 
• Short and long term management solutions for waste with enhanced natural radioactivity, proposing new solutions, if applicable, shall be appraised in 2009,
• The long term impact of the disposal sites of uranium mining waste and implementation of a strengthened radiological surveillance plan at these sites shall be appraised in 2008.

Solutions for the management of legacy waste are also a challenge for several reasons:

• ASN has to make sure that temporary solutions do not become definitive as a result of lack of action. In this respect, the CEA and AREVA have started a clean-up of their installations where legacy waste is temporarily stored,
• Legacy waste often needs to be characterized more precisely and conditioning processes need to be adapted to their specificity. This often needs a stepwise approach and takes a long time,
• Therefore, safety of the storage facilities has to be periodically reassessed and sometimes measures aiming at improving safety of the storage have to considered and implemented,
• Dismantling of an old installation is often dependent on removal of legacy waste stored in it. This can lead to delay deconstruction of equipment and structures, which may be a safety issue in itself.