Specific transport and storage solutions : waste management facing current and future stakes of the nuclear fuel cycle

With major projects ongoing or being planned, and also with the daily management of radioactive waste from nuclear facilities, the role of transport and/or storage packaging has been often overlooked. Indeed, the packaging development process and transport solutions implemented are a key part of the waste management challenge : protection of people and of the environment. During over four decades, the AREVA Group has developed a complete and coherent system for the transport of waste produced by nuclear industries. The transport solutions integrate the factors to consider, as industrial transportation needs, various waste forms, associated hazards and current regulations. Thus, TN International has designed, licensed and manufactured a large number of different transport, storage and dual purpose cask models for residues and all kinds of radioactive wastes. The present paper proposes to illustrate how a company acting both as a cask designer and a carrier is key to the waste management issue and how it can support the waste management policy of nuclear waste producers through their operational choices. We will focus on the TN International technical solutions implemented to guarantee safe and secure transportation and storage solutions. We will describe different aspects of the cask design process, insisting on how it enables to fulfil both customer needs and regulation requirements. We will also mention the associated services developed by the AREVA Business Unit Logistics (TN International, TRANSNUCLEAR, MAINCO, and LMC) in order to manage transportation of liquid and solid waste towards interim or final storage sites. (authors)