Mobile on site conditioning units
In addition to Centraco facility at Codolet, SOCODEI provides mobile machines for use in nuclear facilities directly on production sites.
Some types of waste are unsuitable for transportation because of their radiological or physico-chemical properties. Each mobile unit is designed to condition waste of various types.
Low and intermediate-level process waste...
Such waste include ion exchange resins used in nuclear power stations to purify primary cooling system fluids, concentrates, and evaporation residues from the primary circuits of power plants (resulting from volume reduction process). Like all radioactive waste forms, they must be conditioned in compliance with stringent specifications before being shipped to the ANDRA surface storage facility.
Resin encapsulation: The process used by the Mercure machines is designed to encapsulate resins in an epoxy resin matrix.
The ultimate waste form is a concrete container lined with steel radiological shielding.
Immobilisation of concentrates: Concentrates are encapsulated in cement grout inside concrete containers.
The SOCODEI commitment
SOCODEI guarantees packages complying with:
- ANDRA specifications for the surface storage of radioactive waste
- applicable ADR requirements for road transport
References
SOCODEI holds contracts with EDF
- Since 1996, the Mercure units have completed 57 encapsulation campaigns for a production of 5333 packages and 2034 m3 of processed resins
- Since 1999, the mobile unit for immobilising concentrates has completed 5 immobilisation campaigns for a production of over 200 packages and 100 m3 of processed waste.