Program

*NOTE - This trip is currently at full capacity.  If you would like to be added to the wait list please email  Lizz Mahoney.

Meuse/Haute-Marne Underground Research Laboratory (URL) in Bure

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.

Cigéo

The Industrial Centre for Geological Disposal, or Cigeo, is a deep geological disposal facility for radioactive waste to be built in Meuse/Haute-Marne. It will serve for disposal of highly radioactive long-lived waste produced by France's current fleet of nuclear facilities, until they are dismantled, as well as from reprocessing of spent fuel from nuclear power plants.

Cigeo's facilities and operation will be located in Meuse/Haute-Marne and will consist of an underground area (for waste disposal) and surface facilities spread over two areas, as well as links between the surface and the underground. Waste disposal will take place for over 100 years and the facility will be expanded as space is needed. It will then be closed to ensure the containment of waste over very long periods of time without the need for human action.

CSA Waste Disposal Facility

Located at Soulaines-Dhuys, Ville-aux-Bois and Epothémont in the Aube Department (in the north-east of France), the CSA Waste Disposal Facility is intended for the disposal of low- and intermediate-level short-lived radioactive waste (LILW-SL). Commissioned in 1992, it has taken over from the CSM Waste Disposal Facility in the Manche department.

CSA is a basic nuclear installation (INB 149). With a total area of 95 hectares, of which 30 hectares are reserved for waste disposal, the facility is licensed to receive 1 million cubic meters of radioactive waste packages. As of late 2022, approximately 37% of the total licensed disposal capacity had been used.

Most of the LILW-SL waste consists of small equipment items (gloves, clothes, tool, etc.) contaminated during maintenance and operation of nuclear facilities in France. It also includes waste from research laboratories, hospital, universities, etc., and from clean-up and dismantling operations.

The waste is packed in concrete or metal packages (drums, casks) before disposal in reinforced concrete vaults, measuring 25m on a side and 8m high.

Cires Waste Collection, Storage, and Disposal Facility

Located in the municipalities of Morvilliers and La Chaise, in the Aube area, the Cires Waste Collection, Storage and Disposal Facility was opened in 2003 for the disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW). Since 2012, it has also been used for the collection of radioactive waste from sources other than the nuclear power industry, and the storage of certain categories of this waste for which a final management solution has yet to be developed. In 2016, a new sorting and processing facility for radioactive waste from sources other than the nuclear power industry was added.

Cires is an installation classified on environmental protection grounds (ICPE). The site covers 46 hectares in total, of which 18 hectares are used for the disposal of VLLW. The facility is licensed to receive 650,000 cubic meters of waste. At the end of 2022, 69.4% of this total licensed disposal capacity had been used. 

VLLW is mostly rubble, earth and scrap metal that has very low-level contamination levels. It mainly comes from the operating or dismantling of nuclear facilities or from conventional industries that use naturally radioactive material. Some VLLW may come from clean-up and rehabilitation operations at sites that were contaminated by radioactivity. 

At the Cires Facility, this waste is placed in disposal cells measuring 176 meters in length and 26 meters in width, excavated in a clay layer to a depth of 8.5 meters. 

The radioactive waste managed at Cires is collected by Andra as part of the duties conferred upon it, from around 1,000 waste producers all over France, operating in sectors that are not related to the nuclear power industry, such as hospitals, pharmaceutical laboratories and other manufacturing industries. This waste includes all sorts of items, including gloves, plastic, solvents, lab coats and hospital gowns, lightning conductors, smoke detectors and radioactive objects belonging to private individuals (luminescent objects, radium fountains, etc.). Most of this waste is very low-level or low- to intermediate-level short-lived waste for which disposal solutions exist. A small amount of this waste is low- or intermediate-level long-lived waste for which no disposal solutions have yet been developed. This waste is stored at Cires.