European
Nuclear Society
e-news
Issue 7 Winter 2005
http://www.euronuclear.org/library/public/enews/ebulletinwinter2005/yg.htm
The ENS YGN Core was invited to visit the site of Belgoprocess on the 21st of November. Belgoprocess is the company in Dessel, Belgium that treats all the radioactive waste generated in Belgium. This can vary from hospitals, over nuclear power plants to the dismantling of decommissioned nuclear installations. The waste is treated in various ways, depending on its nature (liquid, solid, low, medium or high level) and conditioned in a form that is suitable for disposal. As no decision on the final disposal site has been taken yet, the waste is temporarily stored in large storage buildings on site.
A second activity consists of dismantling decommissioned nuclear installations. The former Eurochemic reprocessing plant ('66 - '74) is due to be returned to green field from 2006 on.
After a first introduction on what Belgoprocess is and does, together with a visit of the permanent exhibition on site, the group was taken to visit the installation for the treatment of low level solid waste (CILVA), the storage halls for the conditioned low level waste and long lived waste (operation due early 2005), the storage building for the vitrified waste generated by the reprocessing of COGEMA and finally one of the dismantled cells of the former Eurochemic reprocessing plant.
The visit gave a short but complete overview of the activities of Belgoprocess in particular and of the waste treatment in Belgium in general.
On Monday, 22nd of November, the ENS YGN Core Meeting was organised in the offices of FORATOM in Brussels. A couple of issues had to be discussed and taken decisions upon as the ENS GA and Board meeting took place Tuesday the 23rd of November.
In the late afternoon the Core met a Finnish Member of the European Parliament Piia-Noora Kauppi. Briefly the situation of nuclear energy in political Europe (Commission and European Parliament) was discussed and the conclusion led us to say that the position of nuclear in Europe is not that bad after all.
greets
Bart Wellens
Belgoprocess NV
Afdeling Veiligheid Gezondheid en Milieu
© European Nuclear Society, 2005