EMN Ecole des Mines de Nantes

SNEWM / ANWM - Advanced Nuclear Waste Management

ANWM objectives:

• Acquire the basic scientific knowledge necessary for nuclear waste management and understand how to assess long-term safety and environmental impact.
• Master the operational techniques and strategies for the management of nuclear waste Implement appropriate solutions through projects in/with industry.
• Understand the professional context, constantly monitored by various stakeholders.
• Build contacts with a large number of international key players in the field.
• Take into account societal considerations in the management of nuclear waste with regard to the public acceptance.

Socio-economic context

The safe and sustainable management of nuclear waste is one of the major challenges to make its environmental footprint of nuclear energy as small as possible so that the heritage remains always positive which we transmit to the future generations.

The global dimension of this issue is of prime importance, since there is a growing number of nuclear decomissioning projects and since only few countries have acquired the necessary savoir-faire to deal with all types of wastes. Industrial solutions for short lived wastes are now available. Studies on interim storage and disposal of long-lived nuclear waste are on-going and should lead to implementation of appropriate measures in the foreseeable future. Industry, decision-makers and all other players in this field are exposed to a highly complex scientific environment where technical expertise is omnipresent, but where the understanding of the stakes is hard to acquire and effective strategies difficult to define.

Societal and environmental considerations, as well as the search for public acceptance add to the technological and economic constraints that the nuclear industry must take into account.

Teaching Faculty

The courses and projects are run by a team comprising faculty from the Ecole des Mines de Nantes and international experts under the direction of Prof. Bernd Grambow, Ivan Peychès prize winner 2008 (Académie des Sciences, France). The following (incomplete) list of national international experts have agreed to contribute to the teaching cours.

Dr. Claudio Pescatore is principal administrator of the Nuclear Energy Agency of the OECD where he is responsible for the thematics of the management of radioactive waste.

Prof. Rodney Ewing is the Donald R. Peacor Collegiate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and is William Kerr Professor, Department of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.). He is Adjungeret Professor of Geology at the Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark). He has received in November 2007 at Sorbonne (Paris, France) the title Doctor Honoris Causa of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie.

Prof. Jordi Bruno holds the Chair « Sustainable development and waste management » at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain). He is also director general of AMPHOS21, a consulting company with a staff of 50 people with large implication in nuclear waste management.

Dr. Lawrence Johnson is research coordinator of NAGRA and author of more than 80 publications in the area of nuclear waste management.

Dr. Lars Werme works for the Swedish nuclear waste management company SKB. He is as well teacher of Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden).

A large number of teachers come from the French nuclear waste management agency ANDRA.

Course structure

The Master of Science ANWM starts in September and is divided into 4 semesters:

• 3 academic semesters, totally taught in English, including lectures, seminars, tutorials and project work
• 6-month Master Thesis in industry or other institution (Industrial or Research).

Program Structure

The program of the first year for the SNEWM/ANWM program is the same as the first year for the SNEWM/NEP program.