Program

In 2006, following many years of research studies and assessments of various radioactive waste management solutions, the French Parliament opted for deep geological disposal and asked ANDRA to design a deep geological disposal facility for high-level waste (HLW) and intermediate-level, long-lived waste (ILW-LL) in the deep Callovo-Oxfordian clay layer in the eastern part of France - a project known as Cigéo. This is why ANDRA has been present in the Meuse and Haute-Marne area for over twenty years and developed its Meuse/Haute-Marne Centre (CMHM) with three research facilities. 

Research activities started initially in the Underground Research Laboratory (URL) in Bure, a one-of-its-kind research facility in France. Located 490 meters underground, the URL enables scientific and technological research to be carried out directly within the Callovo-Oxfordian clay layer designated to host the repository. The URL's facilities include:

• Two shafts with an effective diameter of 4 and 5 meters, excavated to a depth of 500 meters, which create a link between the underground facilities and the surface;

• A 2,000-meter network of drifts located at a depth of 490 meters below the surface, at the center of the Callovo-Oxfordian clay layer.

Field trip participants will go underground and see key experiments in the URL. Time allowing, participants may also visit other the two other facilities in the CMHM, the Environmental Specimen Bank (Ecothèque) in Bure, Meuse, and the Technological Exhibition Facility (ETe) in Saudron, Haute-Marne.