LORRAINE

LABORATOIRE DE RECHERCHES GEOLOGIQUES, SITE MEUSE/HAUTE-MARNE

Purpose: studies on the deep-underground burial of wastes

The government announced 9 Dec. 1998 that the village of Bure was to be the site of the first deep-underground laboratory in France. Andra was to study there "a continuous layer of clay, the characteristics of which apparently vary little on the horizontal level" [CNE 96, p. 48]. The clay formation is about 130 m thick, and located between 420 m and 550 m below the surface. "Calcaro-marneuses" formations surround it [CNE 99]. The CNE endorsed the site, and DSIN considered that it appeared "particularly favorable," because less complex and better known than the other candidate sites.

For opponents, the laboratory and the possible disposal center threaten to contaminate underground water. Even the CNE, while saying that geologic conditions are "favorable" noted in 1996 "the existence of aquifers near the surface. These are much solicited at the present time for provision of water. The Dogger aquifer below the host formation is a potential source of water (…).The studies on the construction of the storage site should show how to protect the aquifers that may possibly be exploited" [CNE 96, p. 49]. Is it not necessary to protect all aquifers, exploited or not? In its 1999 report, the CNE, in effect qualifying its former statement, writes that the Dogger below and the Oxfordien above constitute aquifer layers that are little permeable. Furthermore, a part of their water is very salty [CNE 99].

The site occupies17 ha above ground . The laboratory consists of buildings on the surface, two shafts, a short tunnel at –445 meters, and, at –490 meters, a network of tunnels including reconnaissance tunnels  [RGN x-xi.99].  Investigations began in 2004 in the shafts and in almost 100 meters of tunnels. 

In 2005 Andra submitted to the government a report "Argile [clay] 2005" on the feasibility of constructing a disposal facility for long-lived and highly radioactive waste in clay. According to Andra, the laboratory site has very low permeability, is homogenous, and without faults.  Furthermore, the area is very unlilkely to experience an earthquake.  Andra considers that a 200 km2-zone to the north and west of the laboratory has the same favorable characteristics as the location of the laboratory itself and would therefore be suitable for actual disposal [Andra 2005].

The official scientific bodies that have examined the dossier have found nothing in it that would rule out construction of a disposal site in or near the laboratory but caution that additional research is needed before a decision on siting can be made. The Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), which advises the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire on scientific and technical matters, includes the following among the needed supplemental information:  definition of a research strategy that would allow possible fractures in the host formation and the surrounding geologic layers to be identified; improvement in hydrogeological information in order to be certain whether or not the possibility exists that localized transfers of water could cast into doubt the overall homogeneity of flows in the surrounding formations; and increased knowledge of the mechanical behavior of the rock and the physical and chemical properties of the cement to be used.  

IRSN finds itself unable to confirm that waste would be able to be removed from the disposal site as designed by Andra during the second and third centuries after the waste's burial [IRSN 2005].  That any disposal site be reversible is a major issue for many concerned citizens.

A decree dated 23 December 2006 extends the period during which research can take place at Bure from 31 December 2006 to 31 December 2011.  

Law 2006-739 on radioactive waste management, passed 28 June 2006, specifies that the site chosen for deep-underground disposal must be in a geological layer studied by means of an underground laboratory (Article 12).  The law proposes 2015 as the year for investigation of a demand for authorization of a deep-underground disposal facility and 2025 as the year for the facility's going into operation, if authorized (Article3).  The reversibility of the disposal must be guaranteed for a minimum of one hundred years (Article 12).

                                                                                                                            --updated September 10, 2008

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