A crucial new step for the National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra).

An official request for authorization to create a Cigéo center for the disposal of the most radioactive waste in Bure (Meuse) has been submitted to the government.

This request thus launches a long phase of investigation by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), even if this burial center, a highly contested project, cannot be given the green light for several more years.

The project aims to bury, 500 meters underground, at least 83,000 m3 of the most radioactive waste from the French nuclear fleet, by 2035-2040.

In the event of a green light, construction should start around 2027.

"This is an important step," welcomed Pierre-Marie Abadie, director general of Andra, on Tuesday.

“Now we are going to get into the issues of the safety demonstration and the actual creation authorization”.

Appeals against this project before the Council of State

Cigeo's declaration of public utility (DUP), which is the subject of an appeal by opponents before the Council of State, had already been pronounced in July to validate the principle of geological disposal and the importance of a project valued at 25 billion euros over 150 years.

The 10,000-page creation request file must respond to various risks: fire, falling packages, failure of the clay layer supposed to trap radionuclides, etc.

The full investigation process should last “around 5 years”: around thirty months for the technical part, followed by consultations and then a public inquiry around 2026, before the creation decree the following year.



However, various environmental and anti-nuclear groups oppose the project and combine occupation, demonstrations and legal battles.

"Hiding these hazardous wastes, without reversibility or long-term control, is not a solution at all," says Greenpeace, which advocates keeping them shallow.

They could thus be extracted at any time in the event of a technical solution.

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