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Volume 30 / Number 25 / December 5, 2005
P10-11
CNE member says French repository decision requires up to 30 more years
A prominent geologist member of the government appointed committee reviewing the French high-level waste (HLW) research program says no decision on deep disposal should be made for at least 10-15 years, and possibly not before 30 years of research and demonstration on both deep disposal and long-term surface storage.
Ghislain de Marsily, a professor of geology at the
University of Paris VI and a member of the French Academy of Sciences and its
Academy of Technologies (equivalent to the U.S. National Academy of
Engineering), said research so far into properties of a clay formation at Bure
indicates the site is “potentially interesting” for an eventual repository.
But he said experiments conducted in Andra’s deep
laboratory in the Callovo-Oxfordian argillite—clay—layer at the site are not
sufficient to confirm the formation’s ability to confine wastes as required.
Experiments in heat transfer, radionuclide migration, behavior of gases, and
sealing of shafts and galleries must still be conducted over 10 to 15 years, he
said, and results “could lead to calling into question the choice of the site
or the design of the repository.”
De Marsily also noted that in the so-called
transposition zone around the laboratory, where a repository could be built in
the clay formation, “at least 10 years of work are necessary, (either) in
parallel with, or following, the 15 years in the laboratory.”
The remarks came in an article de Marsily contributed
to the newsletter published by Les Entretiens Europeens (European talks), an
organization linked to the political club Confrontations, headed by European
Parliament member Philippe Herzog, which has organized meetings on HLW
management for the past three years in cities near the Bure site. This year’s
Entretiens Europeens were held Nov. 25 in Reims. De Marsily has been a member of
the National Scientific Evaluation Committee (CNE) that monitors the country’s
research into long-term radwaste management since the committee was created in
the wake of the 1991 waste research act. But he said he was expressing his
personal opinion in the article.
In recent reports, including one published in June, the
CNE has been much more positive on deep disposal and on the Bure site, and much
more skeptical about longterm interim waste storage.
In the article, de Marsily said that a second
underground waste laboratory must be sited and research conducted there, as the
1991 act provides. “If not,” he said, “there could be concerns that a
decision would be taken (to site a deep repository at Bure) for lack of an
alternative site.” De Marsily added that further demonstration would be needed
of the feasibility of a deep repository, for example of its “reversibility.”
A real or simulated waste package should be placed deep underground, “left for
a few years,” and then be brought back to the surface to demonstrate
retrieval, he said. He added that “other technological demonstrations would
also be desirable.” He said that the choice between deep disposal and longterm
storage above ground or just below grade is a difficult one that “concerns all
of French society.” Society must thus be given time to become aware of the
options, see demonstrations of both options, and then “get together and
choose.” He said it was “urgent to continue research at Bure in a serene
manner,” to study a second site, and to extend operations at existing interim
storage facilities, or build new ones, so as to be able to choose an option with
all the necessary information in hand in perhaps 30 years.
Referendum or partnership?
A major subject of debate at this year’s Entretiens
Europeens was the voice of residents around the Bure site in any decision about
waste disposal there. According to Jean-Luc Bouzon, member of the county
government (conseil general) of Haute-Marne—one of two counties (departements)
that contain the clay formation believed suitable for a deep
repository—opponents of a repository project have collected some 51,000
signatures aimed at demanding a local referendum before any decision.
But Christian Bataille, who has shepherded HLW issues
and legislation through the national parliament for over 15 years, argued that
radwaste management is a matter for national decision-making and that a local
referendum is unconstitutional. French law in any case does not provide for
local referenda, and national ones are rare. Nevertheless, several participants
in the Reims meeting called for a rethink on how to involve communities and the
public at large in decision-making on a potential deep repository, said Claude
Fischer, director of the Entretiens. She said representatives of Germany,
Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Slovenia, and Belgium described how the public had
been involved in decisions on long-term waste management in their countries.
Among the success stories, she said, were presentations by Evelyne Hooft of
Belgian waste agency Ondraf, which has fostered formal partnerships with local
communities to develop integrated projects for potential repositories (for
low-level waste so far), and Kathryn Shaver of Canada’s National Waste
Management Organization, set up to work out a socially acceptable spent fuel
disposal plan after an initial top-down attempt failed.
As in past Entretiens, economic development also took
center stage in Reims. Last year, local elected officials and business leaders
complained that despite promises from Paris, Andra’s deep laboratory at Bure
had not created jobs or brought in new activities.
In Reims, Fischer said, Andra’s new chairman
Francois-Michel Gonnot, who is also a member of parliament from the Oise
departement northeast of Paris, acknowledged that the expected local development
was so far “invisible” and said the “accompaniment” measures foreseen in
the 1991 waste management research and development act had to be “completely
renegotiated” before the parliament votes on a new waste act next year. Gonnot
said the waste laboratory itself could provide opportunities for development and
some jobs, but a repository would create 500 to 800 jobs at the site.
Representatives of waste producers—Electricite de France, Areva, and the
Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique—said they were ready to conclude a
development pact with local partnerships, Fischer said. Last year, a senior EDF
official said the utility wasn’t against spending money around Bure but that
the use of any EDF funds in a partnership would have to be strictly monitored to
avoid misuse. Herzog announced that next year’s Entretiens could be held in
Berlin, as part of a Franco-German debate on the prospects for nuclear energy.
—Ann MacLachlan, Paris
