HOW TO BUILD A NATIONAL SYSTEM FOR DECOMMISSIONING WASTE WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF A SITE OR DEFINED FREE RELEASE CRITERIA:THE CASE OF FRANCE

摘要

Past experience in decommissioning in France has shown that a national system has to be put in place to deal with decommissioning,waste elimination and site cleaning up activities in order to allow a consistent, safe,transparent and industrially applicable management of these matters.A system founded on successive lines of defence has been put into enforcement,which does not involve any site nor waste liberation,as it is considered that the criteria associated are always prone to discussion and contradiction. This system is based on the following concepts: 1.“nuclear waste”,waste prone to have been contaminated or activated,is segregated from “conventional waste”using a system involving successive lines of defence,and hence,building a very high level of confidence that no“nuclear waste”will be eliminated without control in conventional waste eliminators or recycling facilities; 2.“nuclear waste”is eliminated in dedicated facilities or repositories,or in conventional facilities under the condition of a special authorisation based on a radiological impact study and a public inquiry; 3.a global safety evaluation of the nuclear site is conducted after decommissioning in order to define possible use restrictions.In all cases,minimum restrictions will be put into enforcement in urbanisation plans to ensure sufficient precaution when planning future uses of the ground or the building. This paper describes this global system in detail and shows that its inherent consistency allows it to be easily applicable by operators while achieving a high level of safety and confidence.It is now widely accepted by stakeholders. The French Nuclear Safety Authority is now working to apply this methodology more widely to other nuclear practises like the waste management from medical,research and industrial activities,or from past or remediation activities.