GEOVARIANCES more than ever involved in nuclear safety

A PhD thesis dedicated to the geostatistical characterization of radiological contaminations in former nuclear plants has been started in 2008 at GEOVARIANCES. The CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique), the French government-founded technological research organization and the Centre of Geostatistics of Fontainebleau related to the Paris School of Mines are fully involved in this thesis.

Yvon DESNOYERS is in charge of this thesis which extends his 6-months engineer internship in the CEA on the sampling optimization of contaminated soils.

The main objective of this thesis is to answer to a tremendous industrial need regarding the radiological contamination sampling methodology. Indeed, this characterization phase has significant consequences on the nuclear decommissioning projects which can involve ten or so millions of euros and which can take several years.

Setting up of a Sampling Campaign Optimized through Geostatistics

The work is based on the geostatistical contributions in order to not only optimize the sampling strategies but also to map the contaminated areas and to estimate corresponding waste volumes.

Sampling campaigns and geostatistical data processing are in progress on several CEA nuclear premises.

First results are coming soon...