At the same time, the “citizens’ conference” on the subject of the pilot phase organised by ANDRA between May and July 2021 issued a “citizens’ opinion”. Two online public consultations were held on governance issues and the pilot phase from May to September.
French Decree No. 2022-993 of 7 July 2022 declared Cigéo to be in the public interest and compatible with the Pays Barrois (Meuse) area land use master plan, the Haute-Saulx (Meuse) local inter-municipality urban planning document, and the Gondrecourt-le-Château (Meuse) local urban planning document. French Decree No. 2022-992 of 7 July 2022 listed the Cigéo project as one of the major infrastructure projects in the public interest specified in Article R. 102-3 of the French Planning Code (Code de l’urbanisme).
The dossier requesting permission to create the project was filed on 16 December 2022 electronically and on 17 January 2023 in its official hardcopy version.
During its examination of the safety options dossier, the ASN requested that solutions for bituminous waste other than storage in their existing state at Cigéo be studied. In September 2018, a group of experts was appointed by the DGEC to draw up a report on current bituminous waste management practices. In September 2019, it concluded that alternative handling options (storage or neutralisation) were in theory feasible. However, it also emphasised the importance of continuing this research in order to identify the most appropriate option. A four- party research programme between producers and ANDRA is in progress on this issue.
As regards the tax status of Cigéo, Article 127 of France’s 2021 Finance Act has made a change to the taxation regime for BNFs under Article 43 of the 2000 Finance Act. In particular, it provides for a change in the method of calculation of the tax on the storage of long-lived medium and high-level waste by removing the minimum and maximum brackets (5-50) of the multiplication factor. These legislative provisions have yet to be specified by a decree of the French Council of State.
The Activated Waste Conditioning and Intermediate Storage Facility (Installation de conditionnement et d’entreposage de déchets activés, ICEDA) located at Bugey is a facility dedicated to the processing and intermediate storage of ILW-LL from the operation (excluding fuel handling) and decommissioning of power plants. The facility was commissioned in 2020.
The ASN decision approving and supervising the conditioning of long-lived intermediate-level waste (ILW-LL) in C1PGSP packages at ICEDA was received on 19 July 2021. The first C1PGSP package containing activated waste from Chooz A was sealed on 21 September 2021. The third waste processing campaign was completed in late 2022, and mainly concerned waste from Chooz A.
LLW-LL comes from the deconstruction of legacy NUGG reactors (graphite bricks that made up the core of these reactors and their fuel assemblies). In July 2015, ANDRA transmitted a report on the feasibility of a storage centre on a site located in the Soulaines region (Aube) in France for an opinion from the ASN. Work is ongoing, as part of the PNGMDR plan (1) to identify the waste that could be taken on.
Opinion No. 2020-AV-0357 issued by the ASN on 6 August 2020 as well as the 5th PNGMDR (2) set ANDRA the target date of 2023 for the production of a dossier presenting the safety and technical options adopted for the storage of LLW-LL at Vanendeuvre-Soulaines.
Furthermore, studies conducted by EDF to characterise the radiological inventory of this waste more precisely have led to significant gains. As a result, the possibility of storing part of the graphite from the first decommissioned reactor (Chinon A2) in the existing surface facility (the Aube Storage Centre, CSA) can be considered.
The scenario currently modelled in the provisioning for the first graphite piles from Chinon A2 extracted from the reactor in around 2044 is for them to be stored at CSA. The risks inherent in the construction of an intermediate storage facility at Chinon for this graphite were however taken into account, as were the risks entailed in the scenario of direct storage of A2 Chinon graphite in an LLW-LL repository.
For other reactors, the plans envisaged cover direct storage of graphite in an LLW-LL repository.
Short-Lived Low- and Intermediate-Level Waste (LILW-SL) and Very-Low-Level Waste (VLLW) come from:
They are stored above ground in the Soulaines and Morvilliers storage facilities run by ANDRA in the Aube département. In order to minimise volumes, some waste is treated beforehand by melting or incineration at the Centraco plant owned by Cyclife France (part of Cyclife SAS, a subsidiary of EDF).
Following the PNGMDR public debate and in line with the joint ruling by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the ASN (the contracting authorities for the PNGMDR) legislation allowing the reuse of metal VLLW from decommissioning in France was published on 14 February 2022. This anticipated change in legislation has allowed development of the Technocentre project, a facility dedicated to the reuse of these metals, to go ahead. The publication of a roadmap setting out the objectives and schedule for the Technocentre project is planned in early 2023.
The aim of the Technocentre project is the construction of a cutting and fusion facility to process and reuse VLLW metals, in particular from the decommissioning of nuclear installations. EDF is conducting this project in partnership with Orano. The objective is to commission the facility, which is proposed to be located at the Fessenheim site, by 2031. EDF is aiming to begin the public debate on the project in 2023.
In 2016, following the acquisition of the English and Swedish assets of Studsvik, the holding company “Cyclife” was created. The goal is:
In 2019, the subsidiaries Cyclife Engineering and Graphitech (3) were created to develop solutions for decommissioning light water reactors and designing waste treatment facilities (Cyclife Engineering), and for decommissioning graphite reactors (Graphitech).
In 2020, Cyclife SAS holds an 84.6% stake in Cyclife Digital Solutions, which specialises in tools and digital simulation used for decommissioning, and waste management. On 22 December 2021, Cyclife SAS signed a contract to acquire the Aquila engineering company in the United Kingdom. This new acquisition aims at strengthening Cyclife’s position in the United Kingdom in the nuclear engineering sector.
Cyclife Germany was set up in December 2021 to provide a direct presence on one of the largest markets in Europe, in order to strengthen the positioning of Cyclife on waste processing and facilitate its development in the field of decommissioning.
In February 2022, EDF set up a new subsidiary operating in the field of waste management. The objective of this subsidiary, Waste2Glass, in which Cyclife SAS and Asteralis will each hold a 50% interest, is to develop new waste management processes by vitrification based on the Geomelt and MVS processes owned by Veolia.
On 31 March 2022, Cyclife SAS pursued its expansion by buying the French company Quadrica, a specialist in the development of digital tools.
By the end of 2022, the Cyclife group therefore comprised 11 subsidiaries in the field of decommissioning and waste management.
EDF also conducts both its own R&D activities and R&D with a network of partners (nuclear operators, manufacturers, VSBs and SMEs, institutional and academic players), on the themes of the management of radioactive waste and decommissioning. EDF is a recognised leader in these fields and is taking part in seven EU projects to:
(1) Plan national de gestion des matières et des déchets radioactifs (National plan for the management of radioactive materials and radioactive waste).
(2) Publication of French Decree No. 2022-1547 and the implementation order in the Official Journal of the French Republic dated 10/12/2022.
(3) Owned jointly by EDF and Veolia.
