US embassy cable - 05PARIS2727

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 002727 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DOE FOR OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 
DOE ALSO FOR NNSA, OFFICE OF SCIENCE; OFFICE EUROPEAN AND 
ASIAN AFFAIRS 
STATE FOR EUR/WE; OES; STAS; NP; AND EB/ESC 
EPA FOR IA 
STATE PLS PASS NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ENRG, ENRG, TSPL, TPHY, KSCA, FR, KNUC 
SUBJECT: NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE/FRENCH R&D: PROGRESS AND 
PROSPECTS 
 
REF: 02 Paris 8289 
 
FOR USG ONLY; NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION. 
 
Summary 
------- 
1.  The influential Parliamentary Office for the 
Evaluation of Science and Technology Options (OPECST) 
recently released a comprehensive scientific report on R&D 
progress achieved in France in the area of high-level, 
long-lived radioactive waste management (HLLLW).  The 
report's final recommendations will be turned into a bill 
leading to a vote in Parliament in late 2006.  The report 
asserts the scientific feasibility of the three 
technologies under investigation: separation and 
transmutation, deep geological disposal, and long-term 
interim storage.  It concludes that all three 
technologies, initially perceived as "competing," are in 
fact "complementary" and should be included in the 2006 
bill.  The bill would also include a schedule for the 
industrial implementation of each technology (2025-2040). 
Finally, the authors of the report underscore that 
significant R&D funding will be needed to demonstrate 
industrial feasibility.  End summary. 
 
Background: A Very Orderly Approach 
----------------------------------- 
2. In 1991, France laid out a 15-year research program, 
known as the "Bataille Law," to explore three options for 
HLLLW disposal: 1) partition and transmutation of high- 
level nuclear waste into low-level substances; 2) 
geological storage (development of at least two 
underground laboratories in different underground areas- 
clay and granite); and 3) waste packaging and effects of 
long-term surface or subsurface storage.  By 2006, the 
Parliament must decide which method(s) of disposal should 
be implemented. 
 
3.  Earmarked money for research conducted between 1992 
and 2003, mainly under the aegis of the Atomic energy 
Commission (CEA) and the National Waste Management Agency 
(ANDRA), equalled 2.2 billion euros, distributed among the 
three technologies under scrutiny.  Regular follow up has 
been conducted by various committees, notably the OPECST 
and the National Scientific Evaluation Committee (CNE), an 
expert panel set up in 1994 to present to the GOF and 
Parliament yearly critical assessments of HLLLW management 
programs. 
 
4.  At the initiative of two parliamentarians, OPECST Vice- 
President Claude Birraux and Christian Bataille (an 
originator of the 1991 law), the OPECST held three days of 
public hearings on radioactive waste management in January 
and February 2005, each session corresponding to one of 
the research paths stipulated in the Bataille law.  These 
hearings were preceded by private hearings with 250 
scientists from 7 countries (Germany, Belgium, Finland, 
Sweden, Switzerland, U.S., and France).  The 340-page 
report (in French) resulting from these meetings is 
available on the OPECST website: 
(http://www.senat.fr/opecst/rapports.html).  The 
conclusions of the report will be included in the draft 
bill to be proposed by the GOF in early 2006 and debated 
in Parliament in the second half of 2006. 
 
Separation/Transmutation -- The "Ultimate Goal" 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
5.  Research on separation has been conducted since 1992 
at the CEA ATALANTE facility in Marcoule (Gard) and in the 
context of the European network ACTINET.  The OPECST 
report notes that CEA has explored separation feasibility 
through aqueous processes but also investigated the 
possibilities offered by pyro-chemistry, an approach 
finding supported under the U.S. AFCI program (Advanced 
Fuel cycle Initiative).  It further notes that while the 
industrialization of advanced separation will require 
significant financial investment it would optimize 
geological storage (reduction of contents) and reduce 
costs of interim storage (volume/length of time). 
 
6.  Transmutation: The scientific feasibility of 
transmutation has been demonstrated, according to the 
report, principally through experiments conducted with the 
fast breeder Phenix reactor. The shutdown of Phenix (2008- 
2009) will affect transmutation research.  To achieve 
transmutation at an industrial scale, the OPECST report 
underscores the need to develop fast neutron Generation IV 
reactors and/or sub-critical reactors driven by 
accelerators (Accelerator Driven Systems, or ADS) at the 
horizon 2035-2040.  The authors of the report emphasize in 
this context the need for "intense" international 
cooperation around the G IV program and express the view 
that the development of a European ADS demonstrator is "an 
objective worth further consideration." 
 
Deep Geological Formation Disposal -- "Unavoidable" 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
7.  Notwithstanding future progress in separation/ 
transmutation, nuclear development will still generate 
ultimate radioactive waste.  Furthermore, existing HLLLW 
will not, for economic and technical reasons, benefit from 
this technology.  Consequently, MP Birraux and Bataille 
consider that deep geological storage is "unavoidable." 
Bataille and other French experts favor a "reversible" 
repository, at least for a certain period of time (length 
of time remaining to be specified) to leave the door open 
to other modes of long-lived waste management if new 
technologies emerge.  The report acknowledges delays in 
the construction of the underground research laboratory by 
ANDRA at Bure (Meuse), but considers that these delays are 
partly "compensated" by experience acquired in other 
research sites, notably at Mol in Belgium and Mont Terri 
in Switzerland.  The OPECST report concludes that the 
argillite formation tested by ANDRA at Bure "offers 
favorable confinement capacities" and could be a good host 
for a repository.  Engineering studies indicate that 
geological storage could be reversible for a long period 
of time. 
 
Long-term Packaging and Long-term Surface Storage: "A Safe 
Interim Solution" 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
8.  The report highlights significant progress made in 
waste packaging and long-term storage. Some research 
results have already been integrated into industrial 
processes and the volumes of high- and medium-level 
activity waste have been reduced by a factor of ten since 
1992. The goal for long-term storage is to develop 
centennial interim storage (100-300 years, as compared to 
50 years at present) by 2016. 
 
OPECST Recommendations and Calendar: A Political Will 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
9.  The authors of the report emphasize that not one 
technology alone will provide an answer to HLLL waste 
management and recommend that all three technologies be 
included in the 2006 law.  That is to say that Parliament 
would incorporate in the text of the law three principles: 
France sets separation/ transmutation as the ultimate goal 
for radioactive waste management and has recourse to 
reversible deep geologic disposal and long-term 
(surface/subsurface) storage. 
 
10.  Planning for the next four decades: the authors of 
the report propose to include in the new law the following 
objectives and schedule for public authorities: 
-- 2016: implementation of long term storage, preferably 
on the site of an already existing nuclear facility; 
-- 2016: authorization to build a reversible deep geologic 
repository; 
-- 2020-25: implementation of a demonstrator reactor for 
transmutation; 
-- 2025: implementation of geological storage; 
-- 2040: implementation of industrial transmutation. 
 
11.  R&D Funding/Coordinating agency.  While the report 
provides no detailed cost estimate, it states that 
significant amounts of R&D funding will be necessary to 
reach industrial feasibility for each of the three waste 
management paths defined in the law and to ensure HLLLW 
industrial management in the long-term.  To guarantee 
appropriate funding, the OPECST report advocates the 
creation of a dedicated fund, managed by the State and 
backed by waste producers (the French Electricity Board 
EDF, hospitals, etc.).  The OPECST further recommends the 
extension of ANDRA's responsibilities to include long-term 
storage of all radioactive waste and non-reprocessed UOX 
and MOX spent fuel. 
 
Next on the agenda 
------------------ 
12.  2006 deadline to be met?  Although behind schedule, 
the authors of the report consider that sufficient results 
are or will be available for presentation to Parliament 
within the timeframe stipulated by the French legislation 
(i.e. late 2006).  To prepare for the parliamentary vote 
on the law, the Research Ministry has announced a 
colloquium to take place in mid-2005.  ANDRA will submit 
in June 2005 a progress report of research conducted at 
Bure, and the CNE will review research results during the 
summer of 2005.  The GOF will then issue a white paper and 
organize a public debate (end of 2005/early 2006) and 
release a draft bill to be voted in Parliament at the end 
of 2006. 
 
Press Reactions: Many Uncertainties/Long Way to Go 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
13.  Several press commentators note the desire of the GOF 
to "conclude" the nuclear waste issue before the 2007 
presidential elections even though the necessary 
scientific data to define waste management strategies may 
not be available in time for the 2006 debate.  They 
underscore that industrial feasibility for 
separation/transmutation will require new types of 
reactors that exist only "on paper."   Concerning deep 
underground storage, some note that Bure will hardly be 
operational in 2006 to provide concrete results and that 
the second deep underground research lab in a granite 
formation, also mentioned in the 1991 law (para 2), has 
never been built.  Comment: Altogether, in terms of 
scientific assessment, the 2006 "deadline" is turning more 
and more into an intermediate benchmark.  From a more 
political viewpoint, however, the decisions in principle 
recommended by the OPECST, if followed by the GOF, express 
a real determination to move forward France's waste 
management strategy on the political agenda.  End comment. 
 
Waste inventory/Figures 
----------------------- 
14.  Data available end-2002 (Source: ANDRA inventory, 
OPECST report, Annex 1): 
-- High-level long lived waste: 1639 m3; representing 0.2 
percent of total volume (of radioactive waste) and 96 
percent of total radioactivity; estimated annual 
throughput: 110 m3. 
-- Long-lived mean level: 45,359 m3; 4.6 percent of total 
volume; 3.87 percent of total radioactivity; 600 m3. 
-- Long-lived mean level: 44,559 m3; 4.5 percent of total 
volume; 0.01 percent of total radioactivity. 
-- Short-lived mean and low: 778,322 m3; 79.6 percent of 
total volume; 0.07 percent of total radioactivity; annual 
throughput: 28,000 m3. 
-- Very low: 108,219 mm3; 11.1 percent of total volume; 
percentage of total radioactivity: close to 0. 
 
15.  Comment: France, which produces 80 percent of its 
electrical power via nuclear energy, sees only a nuclear 
future for itself.  The country has succeeded in obtaining 
a high degree of public acceptance for its civilian 
nuclear program.  Part of the reason for this is the 
attention the government and industry already give to the 
back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle.  The country has 
heavily invested in reprocessing technologies and 
facilities and is the world's leader in developing MOX 
fuel from nuclear waste.  Recently, Congressman Dave 
Hobson (R.Oh.), Chairman of the House Energy and Water 
Appropriations Committee, led a delegation of members and 
staff to France to obtain a first-hand appraisal of the 
French nuclear waste system.  Hobson expressed 
considerable interest in the French approach. 
Wolff