[en] ANDRA has been charged in France to take care of finding, planning, and putting into operation new repositories for radioactive waste. The policies, the research programs and related auxiliary means are presented, and the centers of la Manche and Aube described. (DG)

[en] This document proposes two lists of bibliographical references which respectively concern the physical properties of metallic plutonium and intermetallic plutonium compounds (addressed topics in these documents are state diagrams, crystal structure, and so on), and the chemical properties of plutonium and of some of its compounds (addressed topics are heavy elements, transuranium elements, and so on)

[en] Advances in infrared astronomy during the last decade have firmly established the presence of dust around a large number of cold giant and supergiant stars. To describe the properties of stars and to understand their evolution, it is necessary to know the nature of the giants and their influence on stellar radiation. Two questions are considered: the formation of grains around cold stars and the modification of stellar radiation by the stellar shell

[en] This experimental work has consisted in the study of point defects induced by an electronic irradiation in the cubic crystallographic structure of silicon carbide with low temperature photoluminescence and electron spin resonance spectroscopies. The first one of these measurement tools has allowed to estimate the displacement threshold energy in the silicon sub-lattice and then to analyze the thermal stability of the irradiation defects in the low temperature range: (10-300 K) and then in the high temperature range: (300-1400 K). Besides, on the base of a recent theoretical model, this thesis has confirmed the proposition of the isolated silicon antisite for the D1 center whose running beyond the nominal running temperature of fission nuclear reactors (generation IV), for which SiC is in part intended, seems to be particularly problematic. Measurements carried out by ESR under lighting have at last allowed to detect a new defect in its metastable spin state S=1, possibly associated to a silicon interstitial configuration. (O.M.)

[en] Based on an analogy with methods of electrochemical preparation of uranium molten salts, this bibliographical study reports data of physical properties of plutonium (melting point, density, ranges of existence of the different plutonium phases, resistivity, resistivity variation coefficient), discusses the search for an electrolytic bath (properties of plutonium bromides, chlorides and fluorides), and the required apparatus (an electrolysis cell)

[en] A General Waste Management and Research and Development Program has been presented for approval by CEA to the government indicating the short and long-term objectives. This report entails: objectives related to long-term waste management and objectives related to R and D on treatment, conditioning, and storage processes. As far as the near and mean terms are concerned, i.e., the conditioning and disposal of low and intermediate-level wastes, and the primary conditioning and the intermediate storage of alpha-bearing and high-level waste, the processes are available and give every wished for quality and safety assurances. Improvements are always possible, such as better performing, simpler, or cheaper processes, or safer from the point of view of lowering personnel exposure or long-term behavior, and work is therefore still going on. A shallow land final disposal site will have to be started soon, to reserve the use of LA MANCHE to LA HAGUE. As far as the long term is concerned, solutions exist and work is underway to select the most suitable geological formations and sites which entails sustained research efforts in order to identify and quantify the leading parameters. This type of research effort is particularly suited to international cooperation, which can also cover site exploration, transfer modelling and conditioned waste qualification. However, the results will only be proved through actual demonstration sites. The small volume of the long term wastes, and the more than satisfactory safety of their intermediate storage may seem to make their long term disposal less than urgent: this is a fallacy. The highest standard of safety at the lowest cost - i.e., optimization - will only be attained through pursuing the effort to the end, which is, the commissioning and running of a disposal site. The time has come - not to rush blindly headlong, certainly, but to get on with it

[en] Origin, characteristics, principles of management, amount, processing and conditioning of liquid, gaseous and solid wastes, storage and economics of management of radioactive wastes are reviewed

[en] After a recall on the radioactive wastes storage requirements evaluation we give the principles and the methods used in France for the management of long life and short life wastes

[en] This paper is an introduction to the materials used in nuclear engineering from the uranium (extraction, processing, ultimate use) to all radioactive products encountered in nuclear processes and more particularly those having particular applications or presenting particular risks in their ultimate disposal. This introduction gives a general presentation of the different topics which are developed in other chapters: nuclear materials and fuel cycle (fuel fabrication, actinides and recycling, direct storage and reprocessing of spent fuels, management of radioactive wastes, transport of radioactive materials, production and use of radioelements in the industry and medicine), moderators and coolants, other materials used in reactors (fuel cladding materials, special steels, zircaloy, neutron absorbent materials), and the mechanical behaviour of materials (steels, concretes). (J.S.)

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