France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) has given the go-ahead for a preliminary assessment for the construction of a centre for radioactive waste disposal near the French town of Bure, in the department of Crease. Final approval for the project, which is highly controversial, may still be years away.
In a statement on Thursday, the ASN gave the green light for a technical assement of the nuclear waste disposal project Cigéo.
The project is designed to to store a minimum of 83,000 cubic metres of highly radioactive waste from French nuclear power plants at a depth of 500 metres by the year 2040.
Pierre Bois, deputy director-general of the ASN, said it marked the beginning of ASN's technical examination of the project, supported by the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety.
The process involves compliance with safety requirements and will take some three years to complete.
Major conflict
Since the 1990s, the Cigéo project has been at the center of a major conflict since the end of the 1990s. Since 2016, several violent confronations between protesters and police led authorities to vacate the zone in February 2018.
While local opposition remained limited, anti-nuclear and alter-globalization activists managed to set up camp near the site.
They worry about possible dangers caused by radioactive pollution and complain about the opaque way the public company in charge of the project (ANDRA) and the State dealt with the case.
However the hopes of anti-nuclear activists were dashed with the growing fight against climate change and Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, which made many EU countries highly dependent on gas, and oil rich Russia.
Since 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron's "nuclear renaissance" and the promise to build 14 more nuclear reactors in the coming decades has put nuclear back as the prime motor for energy production.
The Cigéo project wil cost some 25 billion euros over a span of 150 years.
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