FRANCE鈥檚 atomic energy commission, the CEA, has for the first time made public the amount of nuclear waste the French military produces each year. In its annual inventory, the CEA says that military activities produce some 500 cubic metres of plutonium-contaminated waste a year, about 10 per cent of France鈥檚 total.
However, the report conceals as much as it reveals. It fails to mention either Mururoa or Fangataufa, the Pacific atolls where France is carrying out its nuclear tests.
Bernard Quinnez, director of quality and safety at the CEA鈥檚 military applications directorate, says that after the tests are over, details of the waste produced at the sites will be given to an international committee set up to study the atolls.
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Most military waste is stored at Cadarache in southern France or Valduc near Dijon. It will be kept there until the French government builds an underground repository.