The year 2006 was marked by the passing of a programme act on 28 June, concerning sustainable management of radioactive materials and waste. ASN notes that this act takes account of the recommendations it made in its opinion to the Government on 1 February 2006, which was published, following a safety and radiation protection analysis of the dossiers submitted by CEA and ANDRA in mid-2005. ASN is therefore pleased to see that this act now provides a coherent and exhaustive legislative framework for all radioactive materials, such as spent fuel, and waste.

In 2007, ASN will attach particular importance to:

• helping to draft the regulations implementing the 28 June 2006 act and ensuring compliance with its requirements, in particular by continuing with co-supervision of the working group in charge of drafting and monitoring the PNGMDR;
• finalising the work to revise the regulations concerning sites polluted by radioactive materials. This revision entails the ongoing overhaul of the system for assistance with financing the rehabilitation of such sites and incorporation of international recommendations in this field, as underlined by the IRRS audit of ASN at the end of 2006;
• finalising the regulations concerning management of radioactive effluent and waste pursuant to article R. 1333.12 of the Public Health Code;
• supervising the measures taken by COGEMA to recover the legacy waste from La Hague and by CEA to create and renovate its waste and spent fuel treatment and interim storage facilities.

Nuclear activities generate radioactive waste following rigorous management principles and in accordance with an international consensus. Radioactive waste is classified according to its lifetime and its activity level and is the subject of an exhaustive inventory published by ANDRA every 3 years, the latest version of which dates from 2006. This waste is managed in channels appropriate to its characteristics. Some waste, mainly from biomedical research and nuclear medicine, is managed by decay owing to its very short half-life, enabling a negligible activity level to be reached after just a few weeks. The nuclear power sector produces the largest amount of radioactive waste. The short-lived low or intermediate level waste is disposed of in the ANDRA repositories. Part of this inventory does not as yet have an operational long-term management solution and the corresponding waste is therefore stored for the time being in the nuclear installations, pending reprocessing or final disposal. This is in particular the case with long-lived high and intermediate level waste resulting from the reprocessing of nuclear power plant spent fuels, but also long-lived low level waste, some of which will be produced during decommissioning of the first generation reactors.

In 2006, ASN continued with its actions aimed at ensuring that radioactive waste is managed safely, right from the moment it is first produced. ASN thus regulates its management within the nuclear installation, but also periodically assesses the management strategies put in place by the licensees. ASN thus in 2006 took a stance on the possibility of recovering waste from past practices in the COGEMA plant at La Hague. It would seem that even if COGEMA has sufficient means to implement its recovery strategy, the safety of a number of interim storage installations such as the HAO silos (oxide high activity facility) is unsatisfactory and COGEMA will have to be attentive to complying with the recovery schedules presented. The safety of the CEA waste and spent fuel treatment and interim storage installations was assessed at the end of the 1990s, following which CEA envisaged creating new installations and renovating certain others. ASN observes that on the whole, CEA is experiencing difficulty in meeting its commitments, particularly in terms of completion times, with the result being that it periodically reviews its strategy. ASN observes that certain projects have been successfully completed, such as the CEDRA interim store or the STELLA installation, but that others are encountering difficulties, such as recovery of waste from the Cadarache interim storage area.

Since 2002, ASN has been in charge of regulating management of sites polluted by radioactive materials. The administrative procedures in this field are to a large extent based on the ICPE regulations, particularly the 1997 circular which needs to be revised to take account of the reforms made to radiation protection and the creation of the new ASN, with its radiation protection inspectors who are now able to assist the préfets in managing these situations, but also the experience feedback from management of the various cases encountered, often characterised by excessively lengthy examination processes and by the problem with finding a responsible party capable of financing any rehabilitation work necessary.