CEA/Valduc
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CEA/Valduc or the Valduc center of nuclear studies is a French nuclear facility (CEA, direction of military applications) dedicated to the study, manufacturing, maintenance and dismantling of nuclear weapons.
It is located 45 km north of Dijon near the small village of Salives, to the west of Is-sur-Tille, in the middle of a forest. The site was acquired in 1957 by CEA, with an area of 6.7 km² (now 7.5 km²) and the center built in 1958. The actual site occupies 1.8 km². The site comprises "17 basic nuclear installations", making up a total of 25,000 mē of floor space. The center is surrounded by a zone where photography and cartography are prohibited but through traffic is permitted on roads, .
There are about 1,000 CEA employees working in the center, as well as about 300 employees from contractors. It seems that most employees commute from Is-sur-Tille and Dijon; CEA charters busses bringing employees from various locations in the Dijon agglomeration.
Since a restructuring decision of CEA in 1996, Valduc is the sole site responsible for military nuclear material. From 1980 to 1993, the French Air Force occupied at 0.4 kmē plot where it operated a plant for the assembly of nuclear warheads for air and land-based missiles (ASMP and Hades).
A proportion of the locals consider that Valduc does not bring benefits to the area but imposes constraints and discourages people from coming to the area. This is partly because most employees commute from away and the center did not pay local taxes. The center did not pay taxes to the commune of Salives because it is a public research establishment. However the commune government asserts that some of the activities at CEA/Valduc are taxable. In 2003, Valduc was considered partially taxable, a move which CEA contested. (CEA, Financial report 2003 (http://www.cea.fr/fr/Publications/RapportAnnuel/ra2003/p54-79.pdf)). The Dijon administrative court considered that activities related to the military were not taxable but those pertaining to general technology development and consulting for private industry are taxable.
Related links
- Official site (http://www.cea.fr/fr/surete/Centres/valduc.htm) (Template:Fr)
- Summary on waste reprocessing at VALDUC (http://www.obsarm.org/obsnuc/centres-cea/valduc.htm) (Template:Fr)