Treatment of irradiated metallic waste by fusion technology

France avails of 75 nuclear power plants: 8 of which have been shut down and should be dismantled in a more or less distant future. The dismantling of such a plant produces wastes and one of the problems to be faced is to produce the minimum of these wastes in the minimum possible volume. Metallic components, the main part of which being made of steel, will follow three different ways: recycling in the industry, after lowering their contamination down to the level required by the food industry standards; re-use in future nuclear plants of components lightly contaminated or activated; surface storage of components highly contaminated. These three ways go through a melting process which offers the following advantages: volume reduction and easier radiological checking. (author)