Bure: Burial of radioactive waste could cost up to 37.5 billion euros

The cost of concealing radioactive waste is skyrocketing. The Cigéo project to bury the most dangerous nuclear waste in Bure (Meuse) could cost between €26.1 billion and €37.5 billion, instead of the €25 billion previously estimated, according to a new assessment by the French National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra), released on Monday, May 12.

Launched in 1991, the Cigéo project—for "Industrial Geological Storage Center"—is contested by environmentalists and local associations. It is intended to store nuclear power plant waste 500 meters underground, a waste that will remain highly radioactive for several hundred thousand years. A total of 83,000 cubic meters of this waste is expected, half of which has already been produced.

The updated estimate represents, depending on the assumptions, an increase of between 4.4% and 50% compared to the cost set in 2016 by the then Minister of Ecology and Energy, Ségolène Royal , or €25 billion. At the time, environmental organizations denounced the figure as "a grossly underestimated amount."

"This is a generally controlled cost, very close" to Andra's previous estimate in 2014, which was 33.8 billion, assured Gaëlle Saquet, interim director general of the public institution leading the project. Adding inflation, the bill would rise to between 32.8 and 45.3 billion euros.

The final decision will rest with the Energy Minister, who will have to set the new cost by decree "by the end of 2025," after having gathered the opinion of the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority and the observations of the main waste producers. In this case, EDF , Orano and the CEA, which are financing the project through provisions according to the "polluter pays" principle.

Andra submitted its application for authorization to create the project in January 2023, which is currently under review, with a decision expected in late 2027 or early 2028. The "packages" of radioactive materials will be gradually stored in nearly a thousand cells from 2050, a process that will take around ninety-five years, before the closure of the site is planned "by 2170."

This new estimate therefore covers all costs over "a period of more than 150 years" , from construction (7.9 to 9.6 billion euros) to the closure of the storage facility, including maintenance, security, insurance and taxes. It is based on the "updated forecast schedule", which takes into account in particular "the additional time needed to carry out the detailed preliminary design studies" and feedback "on underground work". But given the complexity of the project, which is exceptional in its duration, "we did not stop at a single figure", underlines Gaëlle Saquet.

The estimate includes various scenarios. This includes uncertainties regarding the level of taxation of nuclear facilities and the savings achieved through the use of more efficient materials. The bill also includes site security costs of approximately €10 million per year, which were not anticipated in 2014.

The project's cost is expected to cover the storage of waste already produced or future from existing or previously authorized nuclear facilities at the end of 2016, which constitute the "reference inventory." But not those from the six future EPR2 reactors announced in 2022 by Emmanuel Macron, which have not yet been authorized, Andra specifies. However, the body has studied this hypothesis, which would represent a 5% increase in the volume of so-called "long-lived" waste and a 20% increase in so-called "high-level" waste compared to the total planned for Cigéo. These "will be integrated into the reserve inventory" and "the feasibility of their management [...] examined during the investigation."

Decryption

If the nuclear revival goes further, with the eight additional EPR2s mentioned by Emmanuel Macron or small reactors (SMR), further studies will be necessary, and "if we add waste, the cost will inevitably increase," says Andra.