Page 167 - Beyond Decommissioning

148 Beyond Decommissioning

– A centralized national enterprise for LLW management and disposal; and Centralized enter-
prises for spent fuel storage from Ukrainian NPPs.
The suitability of Chernobyl’s exclusion zone as a geological disposal site for Ukrai-
nian HLW is currently being investigated.

6.1.12 Veurey and Annecy sites, France (AREVA, 2013)
The Industrial Company for Nuclear Fuel (in French, SICN) is a French entreprise,
part of the Areva group, initially dealing in the fabrication of nuclear fuel and later
converted into metallic uranium pieces and ammunition.
In 1955, a workshop for the fabrication of uranium rods commenced production at
Annecy. The rods were aimed at G1 reactor, Marcoule, and later at G2 and G3. A fuel
pellet workshop was installed in 1957 at Veurey-Voroize. The Annecy SICN factory
has produced nuclear fuel until the closure of the last gas-graphite reactor in France.
The Veurey-Voroize factory specialized in the fabrication of oxide fuel for fast
reactors (e.g., Superph enix). Later on SICN focused on depleted uranium applications.
Nuclear fuel fabrication operations came to an end in the early 2000s.
SICN used the following technologies for the shaping of metallic uranium prod-
ucts: rolling, spinning, stamping, machining. The Annecy factory had also a foundry.
These technologies allowed SICN to produce uranium pieces (natural or depleted) for
the French civilian or defense industry, or for the aviation industry.
Over the last few years, AREVA carried out value development operations at
Annecy and Veurey.
The challenge with this project resided in the conversion of a site that no longer has
a nuclear purpose. A partnership with local stakeholders and public institutions has
been conducive to industrial redevelopment and preservation of jobs.
At Veurey-Voroize, Areva carried out the decontamination and dismantling of the
nuclear equipment between 2006 and 2011.
In 2002, the SICN Annecy factory of metallic uranium fabrication was finally shut
down. The dismantling of the factory began in 2008. As an example of the site con-
version, the Annecy municipality mandated in 2011 the company IDEX for the con-
struction of a biomass boiled facility capable of providing inexpensive and low carbon
heating. This urban heating installation, inaugurated in 2015, uses 85% wood fuel.

6.2 Large buildings

Industrial buildings are highly adaptable. Because they were constructed to house
large-scale processing systems and machinery, they are endowed with vast internal
spaces to be adapted for various new uses, such as cultural events, permanent
museums and showrooms, libraries, theaters, etc. These vast interior spaces should
be seen and valued as major assets (University of Texas, n.d.).
During the 1980s and 1990s many old industrial buildings were converted into indi-
vidual dwellings. There have been, however, many adaptive reuse projects in more