Nuclear waste: the “battle” of expropriations begins in Bure

The National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra) currently has 84% ​​of the land control necessary for the surface installation of its future storage center.

“It remains to acquire around 100 hectares” of mainly “agricultural areas, paths, roads” and a former railway platform, specifies the agency.

Nearly 200 hectares of deep underground (between 250 and 500 meters deep) must also be acquired, Patrice Torres, industrial director of Andra, told AFP.

This plot investigation, which is part of a more global expropriation procedure, aims to identify the plots, their owners and their uses, in eight municipalities of Meuse and Haute-Marne.

No homes affected

It will allow Andra to continue its acquisitions "amicably", but the agency could also resort to "an expropriation procedure" if this does not succeed.

Such a possibility has been offered to it since the public utility recognition of the project, by decree in 2022 and confirmed in December by the Council of State.

The Cigéo project could accommodate at least 83.000 m3 of the most radioactive waste in the clayey subsoil of Bure by 2035-2040.

In total, some 300 owners were identified by Andra, but no homes are affected. The only building targeted is a former station, bought by opponents of the project around twenty years ago.

Around forty farmers, who do not necessarily own the land they farm, are also affected. For them, in addition to paying a sum of money, Andra has chosen to allow those most affected by the expropriation (cut off from two to eight hectares initially) to "be able to rent or acquire equivalent areas" , according to Mr. Torres.

Not enough, some believe. Thus, a market gardening collective, “Les semeuses”, cultivates a three-hectare plot which must be cut in half by expropriation. “But the other half would no longer be arable,” according to Axelle, a member of the collective, who regrets this desire to “concrete agricultural land”. “They will run over our carrots, our lamb’s lettuce, they will destroy everything,” she regrets, noting “the tensions” that the subject creates in the region.

Many associations opposed to nuclear power are waging a fight against this project, which has been contested for 20 years. For them, the parcel survey procedure is not so simple, and expropriation as proposed by Andra "not acceptable" for certain local residents.

“A lot of bitterness”

Among them, the Stop Cigéo Coordination considers that the fact, for owners, of "receiving by registered mail a file for a piecemeal investigation with a view to expropriation can be particularly destabilizing, even traumatic". “A collective battle” then begins, according to the coordination.

Furthermore, "its control of land would dispossess us a little more of our territory", note the opponents. Arguing that "the law is a tool in the service of the fight", the opponents offer information meetings to residents in order to "detail the stages of expropriation" and present "the different possible remedies".

Jean-Pierre Simon, a farmer in Cirfontaines and opposed to Cigéo, explains that he has already participated in an amicable "redevelopment", at the request of Andra, in 2014. He did not think he would yet have to give up part of his land for the project, but discovered the registered letter: "It's a lot of anger and bitterness," he confided to AFP. For him, Andra's request is "not admissible as it stands".

The parcel investigation is due to end on April 12. The investigating commissioners will then issue an "opinion on the extent of the planned works", specifies Andra, and an order for the transferability of the land may then be issued by the Prefects of Meuse and Haute-Marne.

The actual creation of the storage center, for which a specific request was submitted in January to the Nuclear Safety Authority, has not yet been confirmed. A response to this request is expected in 2027, but preparatory work could be carried out upstream, such as archaeological excavations.