Public opposition to storage sites for highly radioactive waste could derail Frances prized nuclear energy programme, the scientific adviser at French nuclear energy group Areva told Reuters on Thursday. France, where 58 nuclear reactors produce 80 percent of the countrys electricity, has not found permanent underground storage with the capacity to bury nuclear energy waste it has generated in the past three decades and the waste it will produce in future.
The highly radioactive waste generated so far is currently stored in above ground facilities at Arevas nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in La Hague on the north-western coast of Normandy. Under French law, Areva will have to bury the waste in a permanent repository by 2025. French nuclear authorities are considering permanently storing the waste, 500 metres below ground, near Bure in eastern France which has clay soil and where the group already has a waste-testing laboratory.
Clay soil is a good option for burying nuclear waste because it is malleable, and would meld if there is an earthquake, Bertrand Barre told Reuters in an interview at Arevas headquarters. But the project is being fiercely resisted by the Bure population, which is calling for a moratorium and a national public debate on radioactive waste management in France, whose electricity production has the worlds largest nuclear share.
"A general opposition (to underground storage) in France would eventually kill the nuclear (industry)," Barre said. "But we have good reasons to think that this will not happen because little by little things are taking place (abroad)." A storage site for highly radioactive waste has been operational since 1999 in the United States and a site is being built in Finland.
Barre was hopeful a solution would be found in Bure or in the clay region that stretches from eastern France to the Paris region to store the waste for up to 200,000 years. "If the Bure population says not in our backyard it would be amazing if we didnt find in the Paris region another site that says its ok for us but what will you give us in exchange?," he said, adding local authorities looking to create jobs could welcome a permanent storage site.
"In some places people are sorry to see their children forced to move away...but find them a job at home and you will be able to bury whatever you want underground," he said. Timing was also a concern, he said, as under French law, authorities had to find a permanent storage site by 2015. Barre stressed the thorny issue was not about the volume of highly radioactive waste generated but about its danger.
Through electricity use, each French person produces around 5 grams per year of highly radioactive waste, which makes up around 10 percent of total waste produced in the country. Thirty years of nuclear energy production generated enough high radioactive waste to fill an Olympic size swimming pool, Barre said. Asked about the possibility that records on those permanent storage sites could disappear in the distant future, Barre said: "We chose the geological method because, even if we did forget, it would not be a problem."
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