The Saint-Laurent (BNI 74) silos consist of 2 semi-buried reinforced concrete bunkers. They are made tight by steel plating.

From 1971 to 1994, waste was stored in bulk in the silos. This waste was mainly graphite sleeves containing fuel elements from the nearby GCR reactors, plus technological waste.

There is only one containment barrier between the waste and the environment means. Therefore, this installation does not meet current safety criteria. The ASN asked EDF to empty the silos by 2010.

In 2005, EDF presented the ASN with the silo dismantling file for silo emptying operations. However, the solution proposed by EDF requires the availability of a final solution for graphite waste disposal as of 2010. It would however appear that such an installation could not be available before 2013, given the delay in the search for a host site.

Based on the assumption that the silos could not be operated beyond 2010 given their condition and the absence of any guarantee that the integrity of the silo steel plating barrier could be retained in the event of flooding, the ASN asked EDF to look at alternative strategies. The studies conducted by EDF indicate three possible options for which the ASN asked EDF to continue to review the technical feasibility:
– silo emptying deferred until graphite waste disposal facility becomes available, with silo operation beyond 2010, subject to improved surveillance of the installation and implementation of remedial measures;
– silo emptying and graphite disposal in the Aube repository (CSA);
– silo emptying and interim storage on the Saint-Laurent site in a dedicated installation, pending availability of a final disposal solution.

The ASN considers that it is up to EDF to find a satisfactory solution for the safety of its graphite waste.

Jointly with the DGS, IPSN and OPRI, the DPPR drafted a circular dated 16 May 1997 on the management of sites contaminated by radioactive substances. The clean-up of these sites can lead to the production of radioactive waste. The DRIREs enforce the arrangements of this circular on behalf of the prefect.

Furthermore, the public authorities, more particularly the prefects, can ask the ANDRA, CEA or IRSN to take charge, at least temporarily, of radioactive waste. The conditions in which the prefects refer matters to these organisations must be specified in a draft circular prepared by the ASN, as regards radiological emergencies outside those about basic nuclear installations. Waste for which the owner defaults and for which responsibility is assumed by the State, will naturally be sent to ANDRA.

The waste concerned stems primarily from the widespread use at the beginning of the 20th century of radioactive products, such as radium for its luminescence or its medical applications (needles) and industrial properties (lightning conductors). This use may have led to contamination of land which is no longer used for industrial purposes.

The public authorities created several financing systems to help those in possession of this type of waste (private individuals in particular).
– the radium fund: this fund was set up in June 2001 and is used to provide up to half the cost of clean-up and recovery of waste from sites contaminated by past activities which used radium. The maximum value of the aid was revised at an interministerial meeting on 31 March 2005 and is capped at 75% for the entire clean-up process and 100% for making sites contaminated by radium safe;
- the agreement between the nuclear power sector producers and the ANDRA: this is implemented in order to secure a site contaminated by radioactive substances in accordance with the provisions of the circular of 16 May 1997 aforesaid.

These two measures cannot guarantee the medium-term financing needed to deal with waste for which the licensee is defaulting.

The radium fund was in fact set up for specific cases and can only be used when the contaminating radionuclide is radium. The agreement between ANDRA and the producers in the nuclear electricity generating sector also came to an end in May 2005. Discussions are under way to obtain another operational agreement between the producers in the nuclear electricity generating sector and ANDRA in 2006.

Under the terms of the 2005-2008 four-year services and resources contract which was signed on 1 August 2005 between the State and ANDRA, ANDRA's duties of general public interest will be financed by the Agency from its own resources, topped up as necessary by a subsidy from the Ministry of Industry's budget. The duties of general public interest benefiting from this subsidy are in particular certain activities relating to the collection of dispersed radioactive waste and depollution of contaminated sites entrusted to Andra by the authorities. By the end of 2005, Andra will submit appropriate management and financing arrangements to its supervisory ministries.

The ANDRA does not operate storage facilities. It concludes agreements with other nuclear licensees so that they provide it with interim storage capacity.

The Socatri Company was thus authorised by decree to store low-level long-lived waste on behalf of the ANDRA in 2003. Radium lightning conductors are stored on behalf of the ANDRA in BNI 56 on the CEA's Cadarache installation. The CEA also stores used sources for which there are currently no disposal channels, in BNI 72 in Saclay.

ANDRA and the CEA signed an agreement in 2005 to clarify the conditions in which all the waste stored by the CEA is to be taken over by ANDRA (including radioactive sealed sources).