Low- and intermediate-level short-lived waste (LILW-SL): This waste accounts for 0.07% of the total radioactivity and 79.6% of the volume of the national inventory. Since 1992, this waste has been disposed of in vast concrete repository structures at the Andra waste disposal facility in Aube. The Aube facility, known as CSA is taking over from the Manche waste disposal facility, which received over 500,000 m³ between 1969 and 1994. It has a total capacity of one million cubic metres and should be full in fifty years' time at the current rate.
Very low-level waste (VLLW): VLLW represents a very small part of the total radioactivity but 11.1% of the volume of the national inventory (360,000 m³ accumulated at the end of 2010). For the most part it is produced on the sites of nuclear facilities. This type of waste (metal containers, large sacks of rubble, metal drums, large metal parts, etc.) is disposed of on the surface.
After processing (e.g. compacting) it is placed in cells dug into the clay at the Morvilliers facility run by Andra since 2003, now known as CIRES (Cires waste collection, storage and disposal facility). With a capacity of 650,000 m³, this disposal facility should have been able to accept waste for thirty years, but it filled up sooner than expected and its capacity will have to be increased.
Low-level long-lived waste (LLW-LL): The waste in this fifth category is awaiting a final management solution from ANDRA's research teams. No decision has been made on the siting of this facility to date. It accounts for 0.01% of the total radioactivity and 4.5% of the volume of the national inventory. It includes radium-bearing waste and some of the graphite waste taken out of dismantled legacy graphite-moderated gas-cooled reactors, the rest of which will be counted in future inventories.
Lastly, very low-level mining waste the residue from processing ore, is counted separately. It is stored on uranium mining sites. It represents around 50 million tonnes.
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