EDF Renewables and Veolia to Form Joint Venture for Developing GeoMelt Vitrification Technology

The EDF Renewables and Veolia, a water, waste and energy management company are going to form a joint venture, which is going to be known as Waste2Glass for the purpose of developing the GeoMelt vitrification technology of Veolia, and both the companies are hoping to extend the application of the technology beyond the radioactive waste levels.

 GeoMelt, which is developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory of US Department of Energy in 1980, is the process that immobilizes the radioactive waste in a glass matrix for the purpose of producing a durable and stable form of waste that has been easy to store and transport.

The Waste2Glass is going to be based in the Limay region based in France, and it is going to be near to a new central unit that is going to incorporate the process of GeoMelt, which is commissioned by Veolia for carrying out the demonstrations along with obtaining the certifications required for the industrial development of GeoMelt.

Both Veolia and EDF Renewables said, because of the cost and technical nature of GeoMelt, the vitrification has been reserved now for the highly radioactive waste, and because of the complementary know-how of the two companies, the Waste2Glass project is going to be able to take up the challenge of the industrial deployment of the GeoMelt technology, that is going to be responsible in making it possible to simplify and broaden the use of the process of vitrification for different ranges of wastes.