Innovation : EDF and Veolia announce the creation of Waste2Glass

Veolia and EDF are thus renewing their joint commitment to developing innovative solutions for the treatment of complex radioactive waste, two years after creating Graphitech, a joint venture dedicated to the development of solutions for the decommissioning of graphite-gas reactors, which has now become a European leader in this field.

Due to its technical nature and cost, vitrification has until now been reserved for highly radioactive waste. Thanks to the complementary know-how of the two partners, Waste2Glass will be able to take up the challenge of the industrial deployment of the GeoMelt® technology, which will make it possible to broaden and simplify the use of the vitrification process for a wider range of waste types. Currently, GeoMelt® is an unrivalled technology that has the potential to become a new benchmark solution for the treatment of complex waste, given the advantages it offers over existing technologies:

A relatively simple industrial deployment;

A significant reduction in waste volumes after treatment, especially compared to current immobilisation technologies using cementitious techniques;

Obtaining an extremely durable matrix for conditioning.

This technology has already been used to treat 26,000 tonnes of radioactive and hazardous waste, particularly in the USA.

The creation of the Waste2Glass company is planned for early 2022. It will be based in Limay (Yvelines), near a new pilot unit that will incorporate the GeoMelt® process, recently commissioned by Veolia, in order to carry out demonstrations and obtain the certifications required for the industrial deployment of this process.