Impact of IAEA 85 Implementation on Transport of Medium Level Waste in France

For a long time, medium level wastes generated by EOF reactors (such as ion-exchange resins and filters) have been immobilized within a solid matrix and packed in concrete cylinders. These concrete cylinders are then sent to ANORA low/ medium level waste storage site. According to the previous transport regulation (IAEA 1973), these packagings were classified as Industrial Packagings, and they were transported by railways and road as such. Since the implementation of IAEA 1985, some of these packagings - with the more irradiating contents - are no longer classified as IP but as type B packagings, because the dose rate at 3 m of the unshielded content exceeds 1 rem/ h . The concrete cylinders are considered as a standard equipment by EOF, and furthermore they have been licensed by ANORA for long term disposal in compliance with the storage regulations. Therefore, any change in the design of the disposal conditioning would entail operational and financial burdens. EOF requested TRANSNUCLEAIRE to handle this problem and to find a solution meeting the IAEA 1985 regulation while keeping the handling/ transport operations of the new package as simple as possible. The purpose of this paper is to describe the solution proposed by TRANSNUCLEAIRE and to explain its j ustification as regards IAEA regulations.