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Radioactive waste storage : an operation under control
In response to societal expectations and the requirements associated with the nuclear industry, the new French programme law of 2006 extends the provisions the so-called "Loi Bataille" of 1991 and envisages further research on the downstream part of the nuclear fuel cycle, centred around three axes : separation/transmutation, disposal and packaging/storage. The main decision concerns the creation of an underground site for the storage of long-life, high or medium activity waste packages from 2015, with a view to starting its operation in 2025.
This involves the operational modelling of the various interactions of elements sensitive to redox (chemistry-transport-retention) in solution and with metal surfaces (package support) and natural or synthetic minerals and materials (models of the geological environment)
In this context, the chemists from LAMBE contribute to understanding the phenomena involved in order to demonstrate the robustness of the storage concepts. In their laboratory, they are developing corrosion models and efficient, highly sensitive detection and analysis methods (chemical, enzymatic sensors…). These direct and selective tools allow them to differentiate radionuclides in solution and to study the phenomena of retention/adsorption of radioelements, or their analogues, on natural or synthetic minerals.
This modelling, backed by a mechanistic understanding of the processes involved, is paving the way for the development of efficient new techniques with potential applications outside the nuclear field, particularly in depollution processes for industrial sites.
Laboratoire Analyse et Modélisation pour la Biologie et l’Environnement, CNRS-CEA-Université d’Évry
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