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Nuclear energy, the environment, wastes and society: the NEEDS challenge

In 2012, the CNRS Mission for Interdisciplinarity launched the NEEDS challenge (“Nuclear Energy, Environment, Wastes, Society”), a program aimed at coordinating the interdisciplinary effort on nuclear energy, and bringing together academic research on innovative nuclear technologies, energy transition, waste storage and all aspects of the relationship between society, nature and nuclear technology. NEEDS will build on the research conducted since 1997 as part of the CNRS PACEN project (Program on Research Downstream of the Electronuclear Cycle). This national research program was designed to comply with the requirements of laws N° 2005-781 on energy and N° 2006-739 on the management of radioactive waste and materials, as well as decree N° 2008-357 of April 16, 2008 relating to the missions of CNRS, CEA and ANDRA. Involving key partners in the nuclear industry, NEEDS seeks to build on and promote the extensive know-how of the academic world (CNRS and universities) to develop new expertise in fundamental research and bolster relations between the partners, while helping the academic community to devise research programs ensuring an independent analysis of the future of nuclear energy. This analysis should make an enlightened contribution to the public debate on the various aspects of this source of energy unlike any other, including risks, safety, social organization, waste management, technologies of the future, etc.

The NEEDS challenge fosters scientific programs, networks and diversified know-how to advance research on:
• Reducing the quantity of waste, optimizing the consumption of resources and the management of recyclable materials, and improving the safety of nuclear installations;
• Improving waste processing in order to reduce its volume and its environmental impact in the short and long term;
• Improving knowledge of the molecular and macroscopic mechanisms involved in the isolation and immobilization of radionuclides in a porous geological medium, in order to build public confidence in this type of storage;
• Adapting materials to increase their resistance to the extreme conditions of nuclear energy production (temperature, mechanical stress, air- and watertightness, radiation, chemical media, etc.);
• Analyzing the environmental impact in detail by improving understanding of the transfer and accumulation of radionuclides;
• Encouraging research to take recent social, ethical and political changes into account, especially in the new context created by the Fukushima accident;
• Reflecting on the relationship between knowledge, society and democracy.

This highly interdisciplinary program encompasses seven federative projects based on two consortia of expertise.
The federative projects focus on:
1. Nuclear systems and scenarios
2. Waste processing and packing
3. Porous media for waste containment
4. The environmental impact of nuclear activities
5. Resources: mines, processes, economics
6. Humanities and social sciences: nuclear power, risk and society
7. Materials for nuclear energy

The consortia gather experts in: applied mathematics and physical chemistry / radiolysis. At the interface between fundamental and nuclear energy research, the consortia are the link between the core areas of the NEEDS program, jointly supervised by CNRS and its partners, and CNRS researchers who are busy developing applications beyond the realm of energy.