ANDRA's Long-Term Memory-Preservation Program

Maintaining the memory of repositories over the long term is required not only to ensure safety and reversibility (legal requirements), but also in response to social expectations. Since 2010, ANDRA has been implementing a long-term memory preservation program to reinforce and diversify its current arrangements in that field, as well as explore opportunities to extend memory keeping over thousands of years. As a reference solution, ANDRA uses the arrangement and practices in place at its surface disposal facilities. Although at ANDRA they are well aware of the fact that the operational time of a LILW disposal corresponds more or less with the implementation time of a geological disposal, useful insights can nevertheless be gained from the experience with short-lived LILW. The reference solution implemented at the Centre de la Manche and de l'Aube includes five memorization devises, differentiating between passive and active memory keeping. There are three passive memories, consisting of copies with various degrees of information on permanent paper, and two active memories, consisting of oral transmissions under the form of events and meetings with various (local) stakeholders. For HLW, ANDRA calculates a timescale of 200 years for the total implementation of a geological disposal, and a minimum of memory of 500 years afterwards, which necessitates conservation of RK and M for 700 years in total. Permanent paper lasts 600-1000 years. ANDRA also developed a sapphire disk which can contain large amounts of records and endure 1 million years. In fact this device created more questions; the purpose is exactly to question 'solutions' that are solely based on engineering. It for instance evokes questions such as 'Which languages should we use, which graphical material should we add, how can we avoid vandalism, what meaning will future generations give to the traces we leave?' All these issues and more are being investigated under ANDRA's long term memory preservation program, in which the social sciences are heavily involved. In 2013 a large public debate will be organized about the project, and in 2015 the description of the memory preservation mechanisms will be included in the licensing application for a deep geological disposal. During the discussion, it was clarified that the 'sapphire disk' could not be updated, but the plan would be to update the data every ten years and a new disk made. Also with regard to data carriers, it was questioned why for instance the Swiss Federal Archives go for 'all digital', while France would stick to paper. There are indeed pros and cons for both. A concrete example of collaboration with the national archive was given: in 1994, the safety authority asked questions related to the Centre de la Manche for which ANDRA did not have the answers. This encouraged them to work together with the national archive of France. In this context, the question arose whether ANDRA had conducted any work on also connecting with international archives, such as the IAEA and the UN