Waste2Glass, a joint venture between the Cyclife EDF group and Veolia Nuclear Solutions, has presented its Rad2Glass project as part of the call for projects under the France 2030 national investment plan “Innovative solutions for the management of radioactive materials and waste”.
The objective of the Rad2Glass project is to design a new industrial solution for the treatment and conditioning by vitrification of low-level, long-lived radioactive waste with a view to its final disposal.
For this innovative project, Bpifrance and Waste2Glass have just signed a contract providing a grant of EUR 630,000 from Bpifrance as part of the France 2030 national investment plan.
The innovation consists of adapting the GeoMelt® vitrification technology, validating it on an industrial pilot and characterising the glass obtained to demonstrate the reliability of the shallow storage solution. It will enable a technical and economic proposal to be made to the holders of radium bearing waste.
The Rad2Glass project also plans to optimise the environmental balance of the sector, by substituting raw materials with recycled waste.
“Through this project, we want to provide waste holders, Andra (the French national agency for radioactive waste management) and safety authorities with a concrete, effective and economically viable solution to the problem of long-lived waste, other than spent fuel,” emphasises Pascal Evrard, Waste2Glass's Managing Director.
The project is supported by Nuclear Valley, the French nuclear industry's competitiveness cluster.