What happens to France’s nuclear waste and where is new waste 'mega site' planned?

France is well known for its nuclear energy production, which accounts for close to three-quarters of its electricity output. 

Plans to further expand the sector – up from the current 56 reactors spread across the country – have been met with both support and criticism. 

The high cost of the reactors and the risk of nuclear accident is an issue for some, whereas others say it is a way to maintain France’s cheap electricity prices and is far cleaner than using fossil fuels.

But what happens to the radioactive waste produced by France’s nuclear power industry? 

Note there are other sources of radioactive waste in France generated by research activities (Atomic Energy Commission), defence, industry, the medical sector, etc.

Depends on intensity of material 

How the waste (déchets radioactif) is dealt with depends on the radioactivity of the material itself. 

Around 91% of France’s radioactive waste measured by volume falls into the category of very low activity (très faible activité, TFA) or low and medium activity with a short lifespan (faible et moyenne activité à vie courte, FMA-VC). 

However, these only represent around 0.1% of waste when measured by radioactivity, and pose very little danger. 

This is stored at shallow levels in special containment areas, mostly in the departments of Aube and Manche (the majority of France’s reactors are in the north, centre and east of France making them close to these departments).

However, waste from other reactors or other sources are occasionally transported via the French road network to these sites.

There are three remaining categories of waste – high activity (haute activité, HA), medium activity with long life (moyenne activité à vie longue, MA-VL) and low to medium activity with a long life (faible à moyenne activité à vie longue, FMA-VL).

These categories make up 9% of the radioactive waste by volume, of which high activity waste is some 0.2%, but 95% of the radioactivity. 

These three categories of waste are currently stored at nuclear reactor sites – you can see a map of all of these in our previous article here.

A project to build a new site (dubbed Cigéo) to store high-level waste away from reactors has been in the works for several years, and is set to cost a reported €25 billion. 

The chosen location for the site is Bure (Meuse), the location of the Meuse/Haute Marne Underground Research Laboratory. 

Up to 83,000 cubic metres of the most radioactive waste could end up being buried at the site.