News !
 What
a waste
Behind
the scenes
Word
of the month
Figure of the month
The alarming evolution of non irradiated plutonium (Pu) stockpiles
in France is shown in the table below (figures in tonnes). More than
ten tonnes of plutonium will have been put on the shelf during the year
1996 alone.
| Category |
|
End of 1994
|
|
End of 1995
|
|
End of 1996
|
| Separated Pu stored at reprocessing plats |
|
27,8
|
|
36,1
|
|
43,6
|
|
| Separated Pu undergoing process and Pu contained in
non finished products at fuel manufacturing plants or at other plants
|
|
8,7
|
|
10,1
|
|
11,3
|
|
| Pu contained in non irradiated MOX fuel or in other
manufactured products at nuclear power plants or at other plants |
|
1,8
|
|
3,6
|
|
5,0
|
|
| Separated Pu at other plants |
|
4,6
|
|
5,5
|
|
5,5
|
| |
| Total civil non irradiated
Pu |
|
42,9
|
|
55,3
|
|
65,3
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| - of which Pu owned by foreign organisations |
|
21,6
|
|
25,7
|
|
30,0
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| - French Pu in foreign countries |
|
0,6
|
|
0,2
|
|
0,2
|
Source : Secrétariat d'Etat à l'Industrie, 1997.
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What a waste
COGEMA is currently building a compacting facility for medium activity
waste (hulls and nozzles) on the site of its reprocessing plant at La
Hague. This is the latest invention of the geniuses of the CEA subsidiary...
They sold a facility to their clients for FF 3 billion (about US$ 500
million) - 59% of which is for EDF - to reduce the volume of this type
of waste by a factor of four. It has been realised that the now half-built
facility will only be able to reduce volumes by a factor of 2.5. In
addition to this, ANDRA's, ill-fated managers of the future waste containers,
have now indicated that an over-pack will no doubt be needed to provide
biological protection around the compacted waste since concentrating
volumes will increase radioactivity.
"We've been bad", comments an EDF representative.
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Behind the scenes
Low level radioactive waste, as well as some of the medium level radioactive
waste, from the reprocessing of foreign spent fuel at La Hague will
stay in France. Contrarily to what has been declared by representatives
from industry and by the French government (notably by the former Minister
of Industry and the present Minister for the Economy, Dominique Strauss-Kahn
- who has personally stated that "every screw" would go back to its
country of origin - COGEMA has committed itself to only returning high
level radioactive waste and "some" medium level radioactive waste to
client countries. In practice, this makes things less complicated, because,
up until 1989, all low level radioactive waste was buried in the nearby
La Manche disposal facility. Furthermore, COGEMA has reassured client
countries that cemented radioactive waste would not be sent back before
2008. However, the 1991 decree on radioactive waste stipulates that
"storage in France of imported radioactive waste (...) is forbiddenä
after the "technical storage" period associated with reprocessing; normally
only high-level activity waste needs to be stored in this way; foreign
customers are happy with this situation. The French have been "had"
(again).
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Word of the month
"For an unsophisticated proliferator, making a crude bomb (...) from
reactor-grade plutonium would require no more sophistication than
making a bomb from weapon-grade plutonium (...) Indeed, one Russian
weapons-designer who has focused on this issue in detail criticized
the information declassified by the US Department of Energy for failing
to point out that in some respects it would actually be easier for
an unsophisticated proliferator to make a bomb from reactor-grade
plutonium (as no neutron generator would be required)".
Matthew Bunn - who directed the project by the US Academy of Sciences
on the evaluation of weapons plutonium disposition options - during
an IAEA Conference in June 1997.
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