The nuclear waste management issue in the dismantling of EDF nuclear facilities

For some years now, EDF has begun to dismantle its first generation nuclear plants. The experience feedback from these first dismantling operations has highlighted a number of difficulties in term of waste management, and concerning specially the application of regulations, the lack of available waste disposal routes and the uncertainty as regards future waste routes. However, the waste produced so far remains very limited compared with the quantities which will be produced during the final dismantling of the first generation plants, as well as during the dismantling of all the PWRs. For these future operations, a clarification of waste management is necessary. The regulatory changes of recent years and the opening of the future special storage facility for VLL W, scheduled for 2003, will resolve most of the difficulties but some problems remain concerning the long-lived waste. (authors)