Areva said on 21 June that French nuclear regulator Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN) and Belgium’s Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (Fanc) had approved the transport licence for the new TN-MW radwaste transport cask developed by Areva TN. 

The cask allows manufacturers to use a single cask for the transportation, storage and final disposal phases, removing the need for interim repackaging and thereby reducing operating costs. It can hold a large pallet of low- to high-level liquid or solid waste, and is equally well adapted to technological waste from industrial operations or waste from operations to dismantle nuclear facilities. Areva said its reduced size and weight represent a real advantage during handling operations on nuclear sites.

Areva TN has just delivered the first of two casks which were ordered at the end of 2015 by the Belgian Institute for Radioelements in Fleurus.