France’s National Agency for the management of radioactive waste (Andra – l’Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs) has revised its cost estimates for the Centre Industriel de Stockage Géologique (Cigéo) deep geological disposal facility. The costing is an estimate of all the costs over the entire lifetime of Cigéo, covering a period of more than 150 years, from January 2016 to the planned closure of the site in 2170.

Cigéo is sited on the border between the Meuse and Haute-Marne departments of France and is designed to dispose of the highest levels of radioactive waste at a depth of 500 metres in a geological layer which has been stable for several million years. This project is the outcome of over 30 years of research by Andra with the support of researchers from the national and international scientific community, including 20 years of on-site scientific experiments in Andra’s underground laboratory.

Andra says Cigeo represents a disposal solution for 83,000 cubic metres of medium and low-level long-lived radioactive waste, half of which is already produced. The facility, to be managed by Andra, will be financed by radioactive waste generators – EDF, Orano and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA – Commissariat à l’énergie Atomique et aux énergies Alternatives).

Andra has submitted its cost estimates to the Minister for Industry & Energy as one of the main data inputs to set the cost of Cigéo. This will be decided by the Minister by the end of 2025 after consulting with EDF, Orano, CEA) and the Nuclear Safety & Radiation Protection Authority (ASNR – L’Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire et de Radioprotection).

Estimation of the overall cost of Cigéo is an “iterative work” which will be revised at key stages of the project. Andra says that, “in view of the extraordinary duration of the project and the absence of a comparable example, the evaluation of Cigéo’s costing cannot be summarised in a single figure: it is given in the form of high, intermediate and low estimates according to different hypotheses”.

Andra has estimated the overall cost of constructing, operating and closing Cigéo at between €26.1bn ($29.1bn) and €37.5bn (at 2012 prices). This includes:

  • The cost of constructing and commissioning the repository is estimated at €7.9-9.6bn including design (excluding R&D), construction of surface infrastructure and the first storage areas, taxes, and insurance.
  • From commissioning in 2050, the average cost is estimated €140-220m a year, including operation, progressive construction, maintenance, and refurbishment over a period of about a century.
  • Decommissioning and closure over about 20 years is estimated at €16.5-25.9bn, including taxes and insurance.
  • The R&D cost identified to date, including operation and closure of the underground laboratory, is estimated at €1.7-2bn.

Andra said the cost decree expected by the end of 2025 “will serve as a reference for the project’s continuation until its next assessment”. It also “provides waste producers with a reference allowing them to establish the provisions they are required to make for the management of their waste”.

Andra will launch construction of the repository in 2027, subject to regulatory approval, leading to a pilot phase with the first cold tests. This will take the form of a “small pilot district” with around 20 cells for high-level waste out of the 900 planned and four cells out of 22 for medium-level waste. For the rest, a new authorisation will be necessary.

The first radioactive waste packages are expected in 2035 or 2040 for a pilot industrial phase planned until 2050 for medium-level, long-lived waste. High level wastes are not expected before 2085 after they cool sufficiently. Cigéo will gradually expand underground until 2150, when it closes, initiating a surveillance period of at least 300 years.