Atelier Vitrification Marcoule

The Atelier Vitrification Marcoule (AVM) is now a decommissioned facility for vitrification of highly radioactive liquid waste . Located on the site of the decommissioned UP1 reprocessing plant in Marcoule, it was in operation from 1978 to 1999. A total of around 1900 m³ of liquid HAW were processed into around 2500 glass blocks. The AVM process named after the plant was further developed for the La Hague reprocessing plant and is now also used in the WVP vitrification plant in Sellafield .

Procedure

The AVM process consists of two stages. In the first step, the highly radioactive concentrate is dried and calcined in a rotary kiln . In the second step, the glazing takes place in an inductively heated metal furnace. The activity in the furnace exhaust gas is largely retained by filters . The glass product ( borosilicate glass ) is filled into stainless steel containers with a volume of 150 liters. Borosilicate glass has established itself worldwide as the cheapest material for immobilizing the fission products .