Cyclife France has developed a mobile offering that enables waste to be treated directly at production sites, such as nuclear power plants, laboratories and factories.

Some waste can be difficult to transport, due to its radiological or physical/chemical characteristics. In such cases, it is preferable to bring the treatment process to the waste, rather than the other way around.

The mobile machines designed by Cyclife France enable such waste to be conditioned in accordance with strict specifications before dispatch to ANDRA.

Each mobile machine conditions different types of waste at production sites.

Mercure mobile machines, for example, treat ion exchange resins used to purify the water in nuclear power plant systems. The process deployed by Cyclife via the Mercure machines enables the resins to be encapsulated in an epoxy resin matrix. The final waste is conditioned in a concrete container reinforced with a steel radiological shield, manufactured at Centraco, where possible.

Cyclife France also operates a mobile unit for immobilising radioactive concentrates from the treatment by evaporation of effluents produced by nuclear power plants. This unit uses a process which immobilises the concentrates by means of a hydraulic binder.

In addition to these processes, Cyclife France can meet a range of needs for on-site handling and treatment of waste, such as sump cleaning, sludge evacuation, specific sorting, etc.

For all of the services it provides, Cyclife ensures that waste is packaged:

• in accordance with transport regulations (ADR)
• in accordance with ANDRA specifications for the surface storage of radioactive waste.

Examples of our on-site cleaning services:

Since 1996, the Mercure 1 and 2 mobile units have carried out more than one hundred ion exchange resin encapsulation campaigns, corresponding to a total production of 4,250 cubic metres (as of the end of 2018) at EDF group nuclear power plants and other production sites.