Data from Spain and France

1999/11/01 Plazaola, Fernando Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ingurumena
• Energia

Projects underway for waste collection

Radioactive fuel residues used in Spanish nuclear power plants will be deposited in the provisional deposits to be constructed on surface, V. Radioactive waste. As approved in the Plan. For the filling of the pool shaped containers of the 7 nuclear power plants currently in operation, special deposits will be built on land. The first of these will be built in the central Trillo I with own technology of international recognition.

Radioactive fuel waste will be collected in safety tanks called ENSA-DPT, located in the central site. The cover will be a stainless steel cylinder and protected against radiation, with the second stainless steel cylinder under. Inside these two layers, the waste bars will be stored in a body built with a special polymer capable of absorbing neutrons and dispersing heat. The cylinders will also have double cover.

In France there are also warehouses similar to those intended to be built in the central Trillo I. Bat is in operation since 1992 in Aube and ANDRA is experimenting in the center of La Mancha. Since 1994, ANDRA has been conducting research works for the construction of warehouses in the subsoil, very in depth. After preliminary geological studies, the first underground research centre in Bure was established in 1998, on the border between the departments of Haute-Marne and Meuse, in northeastern France. Geological and technical research on the future warehouse will be carried out in these laboratories. These laboratories are research centers and will not be used as a warehouse until their usefulness is demonstrated.