Submission of the application for authorization to create Cigéo

"First and foremost, it is the result of 30 years of progressive development under regular evaluation. Over time, the scientific and technological aspects of the project have been refined. Today, we are submitting a construction licence application file (DAC) for Cigeo, based on well‑defined design principles and a robust safety demonstration.

But the submission of the application and the upcoming review by the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), together, also represent the start of a new phase: Cigeo is getting ready for the construction phase and Andra is becoming the operator. Although Cigeo still needs additional development and refinement, the Agency is already responsible for it, in terms of reporting to the ASN.

With the submission, Cigeo reaches the point when a national project, supported by the State, meets a host region, a territory. Meuse and Haute-Marne districts are making their contribution to this work in the public interest, i.e. long-term management of radioactive waste, on the nation’s behalf. We owe them a debt of recognition and our assurance of continuing support and involvement of local stakeholders in future decisions and choices. This is the guarantee of a lasting trust.

To put the project into perspective: the next few years ultimately represent a relatively short period, when compared with not only the decades of work that have gone before, but also the project’s hundred-year deployment period, and even the challenge of geological disposal, aiming to offer a safe waste management solution for the next few hundred thousand years. Today we are demonstrating our responsibility to future generations, especially against the background of uncertainty in our society, to make sure that we do not leave them with the burden of the radioactive waste that we have produced.

With today’s submission Andra is publishing new documents on Cigéo and, would you be interested in reading them, we kindly invite you to visit our websites :  https://international.andra.fr/ and https://www.andra.fr/.

Finally, I take the opportunity of this announcement, in my name and on behalf Andra, to wish you a very happy new year."

 

Pierre-Marie Abadie, Chief Executive Officer of Andra

 

>>> Click here to see a presentation of the contents of the Cigeo construction licence application file

>>> Click here to see a presentation of the Master plan

>>> Click here to view the Cigéo Mag 2023

 

Click to view the CigéoMag 2023