WNWR 2019 — 7. COUNTRY STUDIES
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QUANTITIES OF WASTE ANDRA publishes an inventory of nuclear materials and waste every three years. The last comprehensive inventory was published in 2018, providing data for the end of 2016. A summary update published in 2019 provides data for the end of 2017 for some categories. As of December 2017, ANDRA estimated 3,740 m³ of high-level waste (HLW), 42,800 m³ of intermediate-level long-lived waste (ILW-LL), 93,600 m³ of low-level long-lived waste (LLW-LL), 938,000 m³ of lowand intermediate-level short-lived waste (LILW-SL), and 537,000 m³ of very low-level waste (VLLW). In addition, 1,770 m³ of waste was not included in any category. Detailed information is provided in Table 11. Data provided by ANDRA include foreign waste when it is stored on French territory. This mostly relates to spent fuel reprocessing contracts with foreign customers. Solid wastes stemming from that processing has to be returned to the countries of origin, since French law forbids the disposal of nuclear waste of foreign origin on the national territory. However, substitution occurs between different types of waste so as to minimize the volumes to be shipped. The substitution can also circumvent problematic waste forms (e.g. bituminized intermediate-level waste) that have not been accepted by foreign reprocessing customers. Moreover, past and current activities related to nuclear materials of foreign origin have generated waste (e.g. unirradiated breeder fuel), and “reusable materials” (e.g. reprocessed uranium) with no actual use that are now accounted for as French. HLW almost entirely arises from spent fuel reprocessing. As of the end of 2018, more than 34,000 tHM of French and foreign fuel have been reprocessed at La Hague. Most of the resultant HLW, at least 95 percent, is conditioned as vitrified waste packages. A small fraction is stored for cooling in tanks, while awaiting vitrification. For ILW-LL, the situation is quite heterogeneous: some waste is conditioned for final disposal, while some is pre-conditioned or even raw. This waste can be cemented in metal drums, in sludges or other raw forms, bituminized, vitrified or concreted. However, some old packages or sludges need characterization before reconditioning. A large quantity of bituminized, inflammable waste packages represent a particular reconditioning challenge.
