ASN Report 2017

460 ASN report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2017 Chapter 16  - Radioactive waste and contaminated sites and soils 1.5.2 Management of waste containing enhanced natural radioactivity Some professional activities using raw materials which naturally contain radionuclides, but which are not used for their radioactive properties, may lead to an increase in specific activity in the products, residues or waste resulting from these materials. This is known as technologically enhanced natural radioactivity. The majority of these activities are (or were) regulated by the ICPE System and are listed by the Order of 25th May 2005 concerning professional activities involving raw materials that naturally contain radionuclides and which are not used for their radioactive properties. Waste containing enhanced natural radioactivity can be accepted in various types of facilities, depending on its specific activity: ཛྷ ཛྷ in a waste disposal facility authorised by Prefectural Order if the conditions of acceptance provided for in the Circular of 25th July 2006 relative to classified installations “Acceptance of waste containing enhanced or concentrated natural radioactivity in the waste disposal facilities” are fulfilled; ཛྷ ཛྷ in the very low level waste disposal facility, Cires; ཛྷ ཛྷ in a storage facility. Some of this waste is waiting for a disposal route, in particular the commissioning of a disposal centre for long-lived, low level waste. Four waste disposal facilities are authorised by Prefectural Order to receive waste containing enhanced natural radioactivity, namely the hazardous waste disposal facilities of: ཛྷ ཛྷ Villeparisis in Ile-de-France, authorised until 31st December 2020, for an annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year (t/year); ཛྷ ཛྷ Bellegarde in Occitanie, authorised until 4th February 2029, for an annual capacity of 250,000 t/ year until 2018 and 105,000 t/year beyond this; ཛྷ ཛྷ Champteussé-sur-Baconne in Pays de la Loire, authorised until 2049, for an annual capacity of 55,000 t/year; ཛྷ ཛྷ Argences in Normandie, authorised until 2023, for an annual capacity of 30,000 t/year. The PNGMDR 2013-2015 identified the need for regulatory changes in order to improve knowledge of the deposits of enhanced naturally radioactive waste and improve their traceability. The transposition of Directive 2013/59/Euratom of 5th December 2013 setting the basic standards for radiation protection (see chapter 3) provides for a reinforcement of the provisions applicable to radiation of natural origin, and notably to human activities involving the presence of natural sources of radiation that lead to a notable increase in the exposure of workers or the public. The activities of industries involving enhanced natural radioactivity are therefore concerned. The scope of application of the reinforcements will extend to substances, products and materials that naturally contain radionuclides (potassium-40 and chains of uranium-238 and 235 and of thorium-232) at a level necessitating radiation protection verification. Consequently, the currently applicable regulations concerning activities involving enhanced natural radioactivity will change in 2018 in the transposition of this directive, while maintaining the same management principles for this type of waste. 1.5.3 Management of mining residues and mining waste rock from former uranium mines Uranium mines were worked in France between 1948 and 2001, producing 76,000 tons of uranium. Some 250 sites in France were involved in exploration, extraction and processing activities. The sites were spread over 27 départements in the eight regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bretagne, Pays de la Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur, Grand Est and Occitanie. Ore processing was carried out in 8 plants. The former uranium mines are now almost all under the responsibility of Areva Mines. The working of uranium mines produced two categories of products: ཛྷ ཛྷ mining waste rock, that is to say the rocks excavated to gain access to the ore; the quantity of mining waste rock extracted is estimated at about 167 million tonnes; ཛྷ ཛྷ static or dynamic processing tailings, which are the products remaining after extraction of the uranium from the ore. In France, these tailings represent 50 million tonnes spread over 17 disposal sites. These sites are ICPEs and their environmental impact is monitored. The regulatory context The uranium mines, their annexes and their conditions of closure are covered by the Mining Code. The disposal facilities for radioactive mining tailings are governed by section 1735 of the ICPE nomenclature. They are not under ASN oversight. Furthermore, the Minister responsible for the Environment and the ASN Chairman issued a Circular on 22nd July 2009 defining a plan of action relative to the management of the former uraniummines comprising the following lines of work: ཛྷ ཛྷ monitor the former mining sites; ཛྷ ཛྷ improve understanding of the environmental and health impact of the former uranium mines and their surveillance; ཛྷ ཛྷ manage the mining waste rock (better identify the uses and reduce impacts if necessary); ཛྷ ཛྷ reinforce information and consultation. Most of the mining waste rock remains on the site where it was produced (mine in-fill, redevelopment work or spoil heaps). Nonetheless, 1 to 2% of the mining waste rock may have been used as backfill, in earthworks or for road beds in public places situated near the mining sites. Although the reuse of waste rock in the public domain has been traced since 1984, knowledge of reuses prior to 1984 remains incomplete. ASN and the Ministry responsible for the Environment, in the framework of the action plan drawn up further to the Circular of 22nd July 2009, asked Areva Mines to inventory the mining waste rock reused in the public domain in order to verify compatibility of the uses and to reduce the impacts if necessary. Areva Mines has thus deployed a plan of action comprising three broad phases: ཛྷ ཛྷ aerial overflight around the former French mining sites to identify radiological singularities;