History
Andra was created in November 1979 within the CEA.[6]
In 1983, ANDRA selected twenty-eight sites whose geology would be favourable to the establishment of an underground storage facility for long-lived HLW.[7] Lively local opposition forced ANDRA to abandon research on these sites.
The law of 30 December 1991 relating to research on radioactive waste management (known as the Bataille Law after its sponsor, Christian Bataille), gave Andra its independence from the CEA and gave it its statue as an établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial.[8] Andra is notably charged with designing and realising new storage centres taking account of long-term perspectives on production and management of wastes, and to carry out all necessary studies to this end, such as the realisation and operation of underground laboratories for the study of deep geological formations. Andra installed its headquarters at Châtenay-Malabry.
In 2003, ANDRA decided to record certain of its archives on permanent paper in resistant ink, with the aim of guaranteeing preservation of the information for a minimum of 300 years, for the purpose of compliance with decree No. 2003-30 of 10 January 2003, which obliges the Manche storage centre to permanently record information relating to its stored wastes after the site is closed.[9]
In the context of dismantling of French nuclear facilities, ANDRA launched an invitation to tender in September 2015 for the development of innovative technological solutions aiming at minimising the impact of nuclear wastes. According to estimates, dismantling of nuclear facilities will produce 2.1 million cubic metres of Very Low Level Waste (VLLW), which is more than three times the capacity of the Aube storage centre.[10]
On 5 August 2015, the Constitutional Council censured the insertion into the law for growth, activity and equal economic opportunities, known as the Macron law, of an article defining reversibility adopted in the Senate on 18 April on the proposal of Gérard Longuet, on the grounds that it does not have a link, even indirect, with the provisions contained in the bill.[11] The condition of reversibility is nevertheless included in the law defining the scope of the Cigéo project[12] adopted in July 2016.[13]
In the 2017 finance bill, ANDRA's budget is charged to the budgetary programme of the Ministry of Ecology, under item 174 (Energy, Climate and post-mining).
Bure laboratory
In 1999, ANDRA was charged by the State with creating an underground laboratory in the commune of Bure, Meuse for the study of radioactive waste storage, and to operate it until 2006.[14] The project consists of testing deep geological storage (at a depth of 500 m in a layer of clay), of the most dangerous wastes. The aim of deep geological storage is to contain the wastes until they become non-hazardous, over a period of 100,000 years. ANDRA has been progressively buying land for the site, and has created a public information centre at Saudron, to inform the public on the principles of geological disposal. As of August 2015, 1,650 m of tunnels had been constructed.[15]
The construction of this laboratory has provoked a strong opposition among some local residents. In exchange for the use of the underground, ANDRA consecrates a budget of 5 million French Francs per year to support local communities (10 million in 1997), and promises 60 million Francs if the laboratory is constructed. Opponents of the project foresee a potential for corruption of the local political authorities as a result of these funding offers.
Cigéo
In December 2002, the Société générale pour les techniques nouvelles (then a subsidiary of AREVA) and
