EDF and Veolia have announced the creation of Waste2Glass, a 50/50 joint venture that will develop a new sector based on Veolia's Geomelt® vitrification technology. The partners 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. 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.