Decree 2004-1043 of 4 October 2004 authorised the CEA to create the CEDRA basic nuclear installation (packaging and storage of radioactive waste) on the Cadarache site. CEDRA Unit 1 should enter service in 2006, and will comprise an interim storage unit for low-level packages, an interim storage unit for intermediate level packages and a technical station, which will be delayed for a few years (interim storage unit). This installation will eventually replace some of the CEA's existing installations, in particular BNI 37 for waste treatment, and BNI 56 for interim storage of low and intermediate level packages.

PEGASE and CASCAD are two installations at CEA Cadarache making up BNI 22.

PEGASE mainly stores spent fuel elements and radioactive substances and materials, either under water or dry. Drums of plutonium-containing by-products are stored in the PEGASE premises pending recovery for treatment.

On the occasion of the PEGASE periodic safety review, the CEA made a commitment to final shutdown of PEGASE operations no later than 2015. The PEGASE periodic safety review in 2003 did not enable the ASN to reach a final decision on continued operation of PEGASE and additional studies into the installation's earthquake resistance and justification of reinforcement works are to be supplied.

Given the scale of the work needed, the CEA preferred in December 2004 to propose final shutdown of the installation, which should close in 2010. In 2005, the CEA transmitted the safety case for the recovery and repackaging of the drums containing plutonium-bearing residues. After repackaging, this waste will be stored in CEDRA.

Total removal of waste from storage in PEGASE over the next five years is felt to be a priority by the ASN, which will be particularly vigilant with regard to compliance with the time-frame announced by the CEA.

The CASCAD installation is dedicated to dry storage of spent fuel. The fuel is placed in containers before being stored in pits, where it is cooled by natural convection.

The Cadarache interim storage area (see § 4/1) is equipped with trenches filled between 1969 and 1974 with low and intermediate level solid waste, before being covered with earth. At the time, this installation was an experimental storage installation for this type of waste. This waste was packaged in various ways (drums, vinyl bags, etc.). Operational recovery of this legacy waste began in 2005 and should progress at an estimated rate of one trench per year. There are a total of 5 trenches.

The trenches site will then be handled using the methodology employed for sites polluted by radioactive substances.

Waste recovery from pits

BNI 56 also contains old pits in which intermediate level waste is stored in conditions which no longer meet current safety requirements (some waste is not contained in packages appropriate for recovery in normal pit operating conditions and waste characterisation is inadequate or even non-existent). The CEA has initiated the FOSSEA project for recovery and repackaging of all the packages stored in the pits. Eventually, all the waste stored in the pits will be stored in CEDRA, after additional characterisation and repackaging as necessary.