Differences and Similarities in Andra's Assessment of Activities Carried Out by Radioactive Waste Generators and Affecting the Quality of IL-LL Short-Lived Waste Packages and HL-IL Long-Lived Waste Packages.
In both cases of packages for either low-level and intermediate-level short-lived (LL-IL/SL) or high-level and intermediate-level long-lived (HL-IL/LL) radioactive waste, Andra has defined a quality reference system, manages it, follows up its appropriate implementation in production plants and verifies its effectiveness in production. The purpose of such a reference system is to ensure, in the first case, that waste packages comply with the Centre de l'Aube's acceptance criteria and, in the second case, that the characteristics submitted by the waste generators to Andra as input data for the deep geological repository project reflect the actual production conditions. In that context, the three management steps of the quality reference system include differences due to the fact that HL-IL/SL packages have not been submitted yet to any technical acceptance criterion. Compliance with any such criterion should be the subject of a characterisation report during the qualification phase and of a examination during the verification phase. The management of the quality reference system also involves similarities that facilitate the joint work carried out by Andra with the waste generators, especially in the facilities where both package types are produced.