Dismantling and waste management: CEA's strategy and research programs

There are 3 main dismantling operations in CEA. First, the dismantling of the UP1 facility in the Marcoule site. UP1 was a reprocessing plant of nuclear fuels that operated from 1958 to 1997 and is now the biggest dismantling operation in the world. Its dismantling operation follows a 6-step scheme that will end in 2050. Secondly, the Passage project on the Grenoble site that concerns the dismantling of 3 research reactors (Siloette, Melusine and Siloe), of a laboratory dedicated to the analysis of active materials (Lama) and of a station for the processing of waste (Sted). Thirdly the Aladin project that concerns the installations of the Fontenay-aux-Roses site. The dismantling operations are complex because all the first research programs on high activity chemistry and on transuranium elements were performed in Fontenay-aux-Roses facilities and because ancient activities have to leave a clean place to be replaced by new ones. The radioactive waste produced by CEA enter the flow of waste that is normally processed and managed by ANDRA. Only high-activities waste have not yet a definitive solution, they are stored in waiting the opening of a geological repository. CEA leads research programs on the separation and transmutation of minor actinides and on the long-term behaviour of waste packages put in deep geological layers. (A.C.)