NOTABLE EVENTS 2025 In November 2025, on completion of the technical review of the creation authorisation application for Cigéo, ASNR issued its opinion(1) on this application, called for by Article L. 542-10-1 of the Environment Code. 1. https://www.asnr.fr/actualites/lasnr-publie-son-avis-sur-la-demande-dautorisation-de-creation-de-cigeo 2. Estimated radiological dose (in Sieverts) at a facility’s liquid or gaseous release points, calculated on the basis of the characteristics of the effluents released, in order to assess the potential radiological impact on the environment and populations. After several decades of research and development, in January 2023 Andra submitted a Creation Authorisation Application (DAC) for a deep geological waste disposal repository. This facility, called “Cigéo”, is intended for the disposal of high and intermediate-level long-lived radioactive waste. Following the referral from the Ministry for Energy Transition received in March 2023, ASNR carried out a technical review of the dossier and issued its opinion on it. This opinion was issued at the end of a conventional expert assessment and review process, accompanied by steps to gather the expectations and concerns of stakeholders (in particular the Local Information and Monitoring Committee (CLIS) for the Bure laboratory, the National Association of Local Information Committees and Commissions (Anccli), representatives of associations and civil society in general, etc.) in the form of consultations on referrals issued by ASN (and subsequently ASNR) to IRSN and the Advisory Committee of Experts for Waste (GPD), a technical dialogue during the expert assessment of the dossier, and a consultation on ASNR’s draft opinion with stakeholders. The expert assessment of DAC submitted by Andra was organised along three thematic lines: the basic data adopted for the Cigéo safety assessment, the safety of the surface and underground facilities during the operational phase, and longterm safety. At the end of each phase, IRSN, and subsequently ASNR’s Environmental Research and Expert Assessment Department, together with the GPD, submitted their expert assessment reports on the dossier submitted by Andra. The opinion issued by ASNR, as required under Article L. 54210-1 of the Environment Code, will accompany the creation authorisation application file during the public inquiry into the project, in order to inform the public about the technical issues relating to the safety of the facility as presented in the file. In its opinion, ASNR considers that Andra has acquired a sufficient knowledge base concerning the basic data adopted for the safety assessment and that the safety case for the operating and post-closure phases, established on this knowledge base, is satisfactory at the DAC stage. This safety case must be supplemented with a view to commissioning (limited to the pilot industrial phase). The pilot industrial phase was legally introduced in Article L. 542-10-1 of the Environment Code, following the public debate on the Cigéo project in 2013. The objective of this initial phase in the development of the Cigéo project will be to progressively test Cigéo’s technical and operational functionalities under real conditions. It aims to confirm the reversibility of the facility, and to confirm its safety case, in particular through a programme of in situ tests. The opinion also sets out the elements that ASNR considers necessary for the update of the file, scheduled before the public inquiry, as well as the elements expected at later stages of the project’s development, particularly during the pilot industrial phase. ASNR considers that the commitments made by Andra to update the creation authorisation application file prior to the public inquiry meet the expectations raised during the technical review. This additional information relates to the adaptability of Cigéo, uncertainties regarding the volume of primary packages, the inventory of toxic chemical substances and their long-term impact on health, the contribution of carbon-14 (14C) to the dose at outlets from the facility(2), and sealing. Cigéo ASNR has issued its opinion on the creation authorisation application Cigéo is the project for the reversible disposal of ultimate radioactive waste. It will be established in Bure (Meuse département). The waste that will be stored in Cigéo is known as high-level long-lived waste (HLW-LL) and intermediate-level long-lived waste (ILW-LL). It originates mainly from the operation and decommissioning of French nuclear facilities, and in particular from the recycling of spent nuclear fuel. The waste will be inserted into disposal containers and lowered by robotic devices to a depth of around 500 m, in the middle of a layer of clay more than 140 m thick and 160 million years old. Cigéo is scheduled to be fully commissioned in 2055, and to operate for around 100 years. Its cost, which is currently being reassessed, was set at €25 billion in 2016. 16 ABSTRACTS – ASNR Report on the state of nuclear safety and radiation protection in France in 2025
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NjQ0NzU=