Universal Registration Document 2022

The provisions for long-term radioactive waste management break down as follows:

Very low-level and low and medium-level waste

Basis for estimation

Very low-level waste and low and medium-level waste come from nuclear facilities in operation or in the process of being decommissioned:

• very low-level waste mainly comes from nuclear plant decommissioning, and generally takes the form of metals (large components, piping, support structures, etc.) or rubble (concrete, earth, etc.). This type of waste is stored at surface level at the Morvilliers storage centre managed by ANDRA commissioned in 2003;
• low and medium-level waste (gloves, filters, resins, materials, etc.) is stored at surface level at the Soulaines storage centre managed by ANDRA, commissioned in 1992.

The cost of removing, processing and storing short-lived waste (very low-level and low and medium-level) is assessed on the basis of:

• current contracts with transporters, and ANDRA for operation of the existing storage centres;
• the costs of the plant run by the subsidiary Cyclife France (the Centraco site at Marcoule, commissioned in 1999) for processing some of this waste that can be melted prior to storage in the ANDRA’s centres;
• an estimate of the cost of a centralised facility for interim storage, segmentation and conditioning of major components such as steam generators.

Furthermore for the management of very low-level waste, the regulations (decrees by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition) governing recycling of very low-level metallic waste in France were published in the Journal Officiel of 15 February 2022. EDF is thus continuing with the development of a segmentation and fusing facility to process and recycle the very low-level metallic waste resulting from decommissioning of nuclear plants. This project, called Technocentre, is led by EDF in collaboration with Orano, with a target commissioning date of 2031. In line with France’s 5th National Plan for Managing Radioactive Matter and Waste, a roadmap setting out the objectives and timetable for the Technocentre project is due to be released in early 2023.

Developments in 2021

In 2021, in addition to changing the technical assumptions underlying provisions so as to reflect the impacts of extending the depreciation period for 1300MW-series plants (the modified timing of waste production from decommissioning results in an increase in decommissioning waste to be sent to storage in some years and industrial solutions will be required to smooth the waste dispatch flows), the industrial scenario for management of decommissioning waste prior to storage was optimized by introducing prior processing to reduce the volumes stored. This had no significant impact on provisions.

Developments in 2022

In 2022, the annual review incorporated the most recent assumptions regarding management of this waste. This had no significant impact on provisions.

Long-lived low-level waste

Long-lived low-level waste belonging to EDF essentially consists of graphite waste from the ongoing decommissioning of the former UNGG (natural uranium graphite gas-cooled) nuclear plants.

As this waste has a long lifetime but is lower-level than long-lived medium and high-level waste, specific subsurface storage requirements apply under the French Law of 28 June 2006.

Following the initial geological investigations, in July 2015 ANDRA remitted a report on a proposed storage centre for long-lived low-level waste on a site located in the Soulaines region (Aube) in France. This report was submitted to the ASN for its opinion. Uncertainties remain about the site’s capacity to accommodate all of the waste included in the baseline inventory of the long-lived low-level waste storage facility.

Further studies were planned under the 2016-2018 period of the National Plan for the Management of Radioactive Materials and Waste (PNGMDR), concerning both the feasibility of this storage centre and the search for additional waste management solutions. The ASN’s opinion on management of this waste, issued on 6 August 2020, and the 5^th PNGMDR (decree 2022-1547 and the implementation decision were published in the Journal Officiel of 10 December 2022) have set ANDRA the deadline of 2023 to produce a file presenting the technical and safety options selected for storage of long-lived low-level waste at the Vendeuvre-Soulaines site.

Long-lived medium and high-level waste

Long-lived medium and high-level waste essentially comes from processing of spent fuel, and to a lesser extent waste resulting from nuclear plant decommissioning (metallic components that have been inside the reactor).

The Cigéo project for an industrial geological storage centre

The French Law of 28 June 2006 requires reversible storage in deep geological layers for long-lived medium and high-level waste.

On 15 January 2016 the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy issued a ministerial order setting the target cost for the Cigéo storage project at €25 billion under 2011 year-end economic conditions. The cost as defined constitutes an objective to be met by ANDRA, in compliance with safety standards set by the ASN, working in close cooperation with the operators of nuclear installations.

The provisions for storage of long-lived medium and high-level waste, totalling €8,381 million (including preliminary interim storage of radioactive waste resulting from spent fuel processing, removal to the storage site, direct storage of spent fuel that cannot be recycled in existing installations), are based on the cost objective for storage, taking account of producers’ shares that depend on the volumes and characteristics of the waste.

In application of this ministerial order, the cost of the Cigéo project will be regularly updated, at least at each key milestone in the course of the project’s development (authorisation to create the facility, commissioning, end of the “pilot industrial phase”, safety reviews) in accordance with the opinion of the ASN.

This project has seen the following developments since 2016:

• 2016: in April 2016, ANDRA sent the ASN a safety option report (DOS), and the law of 11 July 2016 clarified the concept of reversibility;
• 2018: in January 2018, the ASN issued its opinion on the DOS. It considered that the Cigéo project had reached satisfactory overall technological maturity at that stage. This opinion included a requirement for examination of alternatives to the proposal to store bituminous waste at Cigéo with no processing;
• 2019: in September 2019, a group of experts appointed by the DGEC to draw up a report on current bituminous waste management concluded that various options were feasible (storage or neutralisation) but stressed the importance of continuing the studies in order to identify the most appropriate option. A quadripartite research programme involving producers and ANDRA is still examining this question;