Each dismantling site
is specific
The specificity of the CEA lies in the broad range of facilities that it operates: experimental reactors, chemistry laboratories, waste and effluent treatment plants, etc. The dismantling of each facility gives rise to a specific case each time.
Depending on the surface area and facility configuration, the equipment needs to be dismantled and the radioactivity removed from the walls, pipes, reactor vessels, etc. Various chemical, mechanical and thermal processes are employed to complete these decontamination operations. If the workers performing these operations are at risk of being contaminated, those must be carried out remotely using robotic devices, often developed in-house by the CEA.
Dismantling strategy at the CEA
The CEA strategy complies with the recommendations issued by the safety authorities: immediate and complete dismantling of facilities whenever feasible, to reduce the risks as quickly as possible and to benefit from the knowledge of operating personnel. All of the CEA actions in this field are governed by French legislation which is backed by specific regulations.
There are 22 civil licensed nuclear facilities currently being dismantled at the CEA out of a total of 43. Around 800 employees have been assigned to these operations which are financed via a specific multi-year fund.
Key clean-up and dismantling
sites at the CEA
The main clean-up and dismantling sites at the CEA are:
- Grenoble, with the Passage project which was completed in 2012. This involved dismantling an entire site in view of its rehabilitation for R&D activities in microelectronics and alternative energies. A wealth of experience was gained for all players in the nuclear sector.
- Fontenay-aux-Roses, where site rehabilitation operations are underway to turn the "birthplace" of nuclear energy in France into a site suitable for biotech activities. The dismantling operations are complex considering that the very first research on high-level activity materials for the fuel cycle took place here.
- Marcoule, where the former UP1 plant - the first spent fuel reprocessing facility - is being dismantled. It is the largest dismantling project in France and one of the most important in the world. This project should be completed before 2050 with the removal of the last waste packages. The dismantling of the Phénix reactor, which was shut down in 2009, will soon start on the same site.
CEA research
on dismantling
To improve safety levels during operations and reduce both the deadlines and costs, radioactive measurements, cutting & decontamination processes, and robotics are all the subject of R&D programmes in collaboration with the industry. Among the technologies developed by the CEA, it is worth mentioning:
- Maestro robotic arm used for remote operations where workers cannot intervene directly
- Gamma camera used to visualise radioactive spots in predefined areas
- Aspilaser designed to strip paints from surfacing using a pulsed laser technique.