Nuclear Waste Shipment Arrives In Australia From France

7 Dec (NucNet): The vessel ‘BBC Shanghai’ has arrived in Australia with a shipment of nuclear waste from France on behalf of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (Ansto), Areva said. The shipment left Cherbourg on 15 October and arrived on 5 December. It consists of a transport cask that contains intermediate-level waste and a separate cask containing low-level technological waste. Ansto said the material will be retained at its Lucas Heights facility until a national radioactive waste management facility is sited, constructed and licensed. The transport was part of a contract signed in 1999 between Areva and Ansto for the processing of used nuclear fuel. Ansto said spent nuclear fuel was sent to France for reprocessing over four shipments in the 1990s and early 2000s and the waste arising from that reprocessing operation is required under French law to have left France by the end of 2015. The waste, which was reprocessed at Areva’s La Hague plant in France, is the by-product of fuel that had previously been used in the Australian Hifar research reactor at Lucas Heights.