The French Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority (ASNR – L’Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire et de Radioprotection) has issued a positive opinion on the application for a licence to construct the Centre Industriel de Stockage Géologique (Cigéo) deep geological repository for radioactive waste.
France’s National Agency for the management of radioactive waste (Andra – l’Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs submitted its application for Cigéo to the Ministry for Energy Transition in January 2023. In March 2023, the ministry asked the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN – now ASNR) to lead the technical appraisal of the application to ensure it meets the applicable safety requirements.
ASNR has concluded: “The safety case presented in the creation license application for Cigéo, for both the operating phase and the post-closure phase, has reached an overall maturity consistent with expectations for an application to create a geological disposal facility.” ASNR also requested additional information, which is a standard part of the authorisation process for nuclear facilities of this kind and suggested a public inquiry should be scheduled for the second half of 2026.
“We are taking a crucial step forward in the development of the Cigéo project, and we can say today that it has been reached successfully,” said Andra CEO Lydie Evrard. “For 30 years, the Cigéo project has been developed in line with the highest safety standards and, more broadly, with best practices in design, public engagement and dialogue with local communities.”
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.
According to Andra, 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 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.
In May, Andra submitted revised cost estimates for Cigéo to the Minister for Industry & Energy and expects a decision by the end of 2025. Andra has estimated the overall cost of constructing, operating and closing Cigéo at between €26.1bn ($29.1bn) and €37.5bn (at 2012 prices). Andra said the cost decree “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”.
ASNR said its technical appraisal included a standard expert review and investigation process, as well as discussions with stakeholders. The Standing Group of Experts on Waste was also consulted and issued three opinions. ASNR’s draft opinion was open for public consultation between 3 October and 6 November.
ASNR said it “considers that Andra has acquired a sufficient knowledge base regarding the baseline data used for the relative safety assessment and that the safety demonstration for the operational and post-decommissioning phases, based on this knowledge base, is satisfactory at the stage of an application for authorisation to create the facility”. However, “this will need to be supplemented before commissioning, which is limited to the pilot industrial phase”.
ASNR’s opinion has been presented to the Parliamentary Office for Scientific & Technological Assessment and to the High Committee for Transparency & Information on Nuclear Safety.
“This is a key step, very important, but it is not the end of the story”, ASNR Deputy Director General Pierre Bois told AFP. “On many points”, the preliminary safety assessment presented by Andra in its file is “satisfactory”, therefore in compliance with regulatory expectations, Bois, told the Parliamentary Office for Scientific & Technological Assessment.
However, “other additions” will then have to be made by Andra during the major milestones of the project and until the gradual commissioning of Cigéo planned for 2050 with the deposit of the first radioactive packages.
Issues identified for further examination relate to the performance of sealing works blocking underground galleries, the rate of corrosion of metal waste containers, the risk of explosion in the cells and fire. Evrard told AFP that ASNR’s opinion is not “a blank cheque”, stressing that Andra is committed to providing responses “in stages” and to communicating them “in transparency”. After “30 years of experimentation and safety studies (…), long-term work continues”, she said.
