Radioactive waste: how does France store them?

The controversial project of burying the most radioactive nuclear waste in Bure (Meuse) could cost much more than expected. According to a final costing, its implementation could reach up to €37.5 billion. The opportunity to review the way in which radioactive waste is stored in Hexagone. - Radioactive waste: how does France proceed to store it? (Environment).

The cost of the Cigeo project is expected to increase between 4.4% and 50% compared to the invoice made in 2016, announces the National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management on Monday, 12 May.

INFO THE FIGARO - In Bure (Meuse), the teams prepare the site to bury the nuclear waste. Work could start in 2027 or 2028.

This project, contested by the environmentalists, is to accommodate 500 meters underground in Bure, in the Meuse, waste from nuclear power plants which will remain highly radioactive for several hundred thousand years.

The National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management has updated the assessment of the cost of the facility which it now plans to put into operation only in 2050 in Bure.

The cost of the revised Cigeo radioactive waste landfill project, up to EUR 37.5 billion Admin FCE 12 May 2025 - 14:51 The Cigeo project for the burial of the most radioactive nuclear waste in Bure (Meuse) could cost a total of between 26.1 and 37.5 billion instead of the 25 billion envisaged so far, according to the new evaluation of the National Agency for the Management of Radioactive Waste (Andra), which now has to be arbitrated by the gover…