The CEA sent the Government its report on the packaging and long-term storage of high-level, long-lived waste. The report describes the research work carried out and the results achieved. The aim of the research into long-term storage is to design a system able to offer long-duration containment of radioactivity (the CEA envisages interim storage periods of from 100 to 300 years), while ensuring that it is still possible to recover the packages and guaranteeing compatibility with possible subsequent disposal.

It would seem that long-term storage is an unavoidable stage prior to a final management solution. However, the interim storage installations must be maintained such that the integrity of the barriers confining the radioactivity in the waste packages is preserved.

Since 1996, the ANDRA has initiated a system of specifications and approval certificates which should in 2005 result in package approval certificates indicating conformity with the preliminary design specifications of a deep geological repository.

The ANDRA, together with the waste producer, has chosen a step-by-step procedure whereby initially, and until 2001, the only specifications required are those related to knowledge. It also defined requirements concerning qualification of the process and control of production by all waste producers, so that supervision could be implemented and non-conforming packages identified. In 2003, most of the level 1 approval certificates (reply to initial requirements concerning packages for inclusion in the design specifications for deep geological disposal) were granted. The level 2 waste package performance specifications state the package properties which would currently appear to determine the sizing or impact assessment of any repository. These specifications were distributed in their entirety in 2004 and 2005.

Since 1998, the setting up of this procedure has been closely followed by the ASN, in particular through inspections at the ANDRA and on the premises of the waste producers.

Progress made on long-term interim storage work also involves the preparation of specifications indicating package conformity with the requirements of such installations. Interactions between the concepts of long-term storage and sub-surface storage, with regard to waste packaging, must be taken into account.

The aim of the ASN is to ensure that radioactive waste is dealt with safely, unambiguously and exhaustively, regardless of its origin or the means of disposal. The ASN therefore prepared a National Radioactive Waste and Reusable Materials Management Plan (PNGDR-MV) with the assistance of a working group of waste producers and disposal facility managers, administrations, representatives of elected officials and of environmental protection associations. The draft plan was made available for consultation by the public on the ASN website, www.asn.gouv.fr.

With regard to management of high-level, long-lived radioactive waste, within the framework specified in the law of 30 December 1991, the parties involved in research met the deadline set by the law and submitted an initial version of their final report in June 2005. The national review board will in early 2006 submit a summary of the research done under the terms of the law of 30 December 1991 and the ASN will then submit a report on the safety and radiation protection of the various management solutions proposed.

At a parliamentary level, the Parliamentary Office for the Assessment of Scientific and Technological Options (OPECST) organised a series of hearings at the beginning of 2005 to review the current situation of the research carried out under the terms of the law of 30 December 1991 and formulated its recommendations and its stance in a report published on 15 March 2005 "For the long term: a 2006 law on the sustainable management of radioactive waste", in which the OPECST expressed clear and ambitious stances on key issues.

Finally, the public debate on the management options for high-level, long-lived radioactive waste, organised by the National Public Debates Commission from September 2005 to January 2006, at the request of the ministers for Industry and for the Environment, aimed to collect the opinion of the citizens on the general topic of radioactive waste.

On the basis of the information collected in this way, it is important for Parliament to be able to decide in 2006 on how to manage radioactive waste. So that the scope of the decision by Parliament is not limited to high-level, long-lived waste alone, the guidelines of the National Radioactive Waste and Reusable Materials Management Plan could, as recommended by the OPECST in its March 2005 report, be approved by the future bill. The PNGDR-MV would thus be recognised as a key element in radioactive waste management in France.