France lacks storage solution for 280,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste hazardous for 100,000 years
In mid-May, the French National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra) published a new estimate of the total cost for the Cigéo project: an industrial geological storage center intended to bury the most dangerous nuclear waste, which could cost between €26 billion and €37 billion over a 150-year period. In the midst of the nuclear sector's relaunch, the government needs to take a position on these figures before 2026, and the authorization to begin this unprecedented project is expected between 2027 and 2028.
It was in this context that the Court of Audit, the national administrative court charged with conducting financial and legislative audits of public institutions, examined Andra's activities, a state-owned industrial and commercial agency created in 1991 and responsible for managing all waste produced by the nuclear sector. In a report published on Wednesday, June 4, the Court stated that the agency's financial situation was "sound and robust": thanks to the implementation of the "polluter pays" principle, the majority of its resources are provided by contributions from waste producers – mainly EDF (the national utility company), Orano (multinational nuclear fuel cycle corporation) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
04-06-2025
- LeMonde
France lacks storage solution for 280,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste hazardous for 100,000 years
In mid-May, the French National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra) published a new estimate of the total cost for the Cigéo project: an industrial geological storage center intended to bury the most dangerous nuclear waste, which could cost between €26 billion and €37 billion over a 150-year period. In the midst of the nuclear sector's relaunch, the government needs to take a position on these figures before 2026, and the authorization to begin this unprecedented project is expected between 2027 and 2028. It was in this context that the Court of Audit, the national administrative court charged with conducting financial and legislative audits of public institutions, examined Andra's activities, a state-owned industrial and commercial agency created in 1991 and responsible for managing all waste produced by the nuclear sector. In a report published on Wednesday, June 4, the Court stated that the agency's financial situation was "sound and robust": thanks to the implementation of the "polluter pays" principle, the majority of its resources are provided by contributions from waste producers – mainly EDF (the national utility company), Orano (multinational nuclear fuel cycle corporation) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).
LeMonde
26-05-2025
- LeMonde
The deficit of France's social security is unsustainable
France's social security system, which marks its 80 th anniversary this year, has never been in such an alarming state. Despite repeated warnings about the sustainability of its funding, nothing has been done about it. After a slight improvement after the Covid-19 crisis, its deficits have begun to grow once again, while measures to remedy the situation have been slow in coming. In response to the apathy shown by the government, the Court of Accounts, France's public audit institution, has changed its tone. Its report on the "implementation of the social security budget," published on Monday, May 26, speaks of a risk of a "liquidity crisis" it says could lead the system to a "default on payments." While the alarmist language is unprecedented, the dire state of the social security system's finances is not. The deficit, which was supposed to stabilize in 2024, ended up worsening by nearly €5 billion, and now exceeds €15 billion. Furthermore, it is set to deteriorate further this year, mainly due to an imbalance in the healthcare branch. The €22 billion deficit forecast for the social security budget passed in February already appears difficult to sustain. Despite a few cost-saving measures implemented in 2025, the situation is expected to continue to deteriorate, with the deficit surpassing €24 billion in 2028, if nothing is done. Until now, France has relied on temporary fixes to endlessly postpone the painful but inevitable measures needed to restore balance to its social security system's finances. The Court of Audit has now warned that this approach is reaching its limits. Starting this year, the CADES, the agency responsible for amortizing the social security system's debt, will no longer have enough resources to fulfill its role. The Central Agency for Social Security Bodies (ACOSS), which is supposed to take over from it, may face difficulties refinancing itself on short-term capital markets, the report noted. To avoid the risk of default, one solution would be to change the law and extend the lifespan of CADES. Yet this stopgap measure would only buy some time, and would not even halt the deficits, which are set to get worse. The continued widening of the social security system's deficit is unacceptable. France is experiencing neither an economic nor a health crisis. There is, therefore, no justification for tolerating such imbalances, the costs of which will be borne by future generations. There is now a risk that social benefits may no longer be guaranteed. Waiting for this threat to materialize would be utterly irresponsible. Numerous reports have outlined ways to control spending and increase revenue, but none have been implemented due to a lack of political consensus. Unfortunately, that consensus now seems more elusive than ever. With no majority in the Assemblée Nationale, the government has struggled to make progress on social security funding. It knows that it cannot afford, next fall, to pass a social security budget as unambitious as the previous one, which allowed it to avoid a no-confidence vote. The critical state of the social security system's finances demands that Parliament step up and reach compromises. Even if these measures promise to be painful for the French people, refusing to act for political reasons would expose the country to a dangerous leap into the unknown.
Local France
11-10-2024
- Local France
Paris switches to heatwave-resilient power cables
With power cables melting from Portland to Sicily, the world's 80 million kilometres of power lines are largely unprepared to resist extreme temperatures, scientists have warned. The French capital over the next few months will be replacing its obsolete paper-insulated lead-covered cables (PILC), which are made of oil-impregnated paper encased in a lead sheath. "We're anticipating the renewal of these cables, which are starting to be affected by heat, to have a very resilient network in Paris," said Olivier Lagnel, deputy regional director for utility firm Enedis. Nearby, workers in orange vests worked in a trench close to the Montparnasse train station to replace the medium voltage PILC, which were installed in 1965, with modern, plastic cables. State-owned Enedis says Paris is not alone: its counterparts in Chicago, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Osaka, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney also plan to update their cables. A major report Paris face au changement climatique (Paris facing climate change) examined the scenarios if the temperature in Paris ever rises to 50C - something that scientists say could happen by 2050. The report flagged up numerous potential problems, including the likelihood of power grid failure and transport shutdowns. The city of Paris has already run one emergency planning exercise and is engaging in a long-term plan to improve resilience to extreme heat. The current heat record in Paris is 42.6C, reached during the heatwave of 2019. Rising temperatures linked to the climate crisis have been affecting electricity supplies in cities around the globe in recent years. Paper-insulated during a 2003 heatwave in France showed weaknesses with "an incident rate multiplied by eight across the medium-voltage underground network", according to a March 2024 report by France's Court of Audit. Overhead tramway cables melted in Portland in 2021 during record-high temperatures in the northwest US state of Oregon. A searing heatwave in July 2023 left hundreds of thousands of Sicilians without electricity and water for days. Heat damage to underground cables was to blame, said supplier e-distribuzione, the distribution arm of energy giant Enel. "We find ourselves operating in conditions of exceptional climatic emergency," where the temperature of the asphalt on roads reached 50C, it said in a statement at the time. A 2021 study led by Alessandro Bosisio, an assistant professor at the University of Pavia in Italy, found that "an abnormal increase of faults in underground Medium Voltage cable joints has been recorded, especially during summer" worldwide in recent years. Climate scientists say the period being lived through right now is likely the warmest the earth has seen for the last 100,000 years, back at the start of the last Ice Age. PILC cables, which were the international standard from the late 19th century until the 1970s, were long considered highly reliable. They were wrapped in layers of oily paper intended to isolate the centre of the cable, which heats up as electrons pass through. The cables were conceived to resist temperatures up to 90C. But when heat is trapped for days under the asphalt, they can reach 120-130C - ageing faster and eventually risking failure. Paris's 9,200 kilometres of low- and medium-voltage power cables are entirely buried underground -- to save space and protect them from the wind, Lagnel said. Enedis plans to phase out the obsolete cables in French cities by 2050. "The main problem is that the insulator can dry up, and in that case the cable can be sensitive," said Lagnel.
