Industrial start-up of a cold crucible induction melter for high level waste vitrification in an existing hot cell

With over 15 000 glass canisters produced at the end of 2010, AREVA benefits from the largest experience worldwide in commercial vitrification of highly active liquid waste. AREVA has demonstrated the group's capabilities and experience to deploy innovative high level waste (HLW) processing technologies in industrial facilities. AREVA and CEA have continuously improved the hot metallic crucible melter vitrification technology through operational feedback as well as ongoing research and development. The resulting know-how paved the way for the development and implementation of Cold Crucible Induction Melter technology (CCIM). The cold crucible is a compact water-cooled melter in which radioactive waste and glass are heated and molten by direct high frequency induction. This technology can withstand highly corrosive solutions and high operating temperatures, and allows, among other things: a greater flexibility in matrix compositions, a higher production throughput. AREVA and CEA developed together the cold crucible technology, and adapted it for vitrification of high active liquid waste vitrification. They pursued cooperation to put CCIM into commercial operation in one of the existing vitrification lines of AREVA La Hague plant in 2010. One of the main challenges for the project team was to replace the hot metallic crucible melter with the CCIM in an existing hot cell that had already been operated for 20 years. The paper will describe why this event is a major milestone for the vitrification of HLW and how the change to a brand new technology was performed in an existing Hot Cell and succeeded in record time, without any impact on the La Hague plant's production. The start-up sequence and the results of first industrial production campaigns of the CCIM will also be presented. (author)