Workshop participants outside the Meuse/Haute-Marne Centre in Bure, France
The NEA Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC), celebrating 25 years, held its annual plenary meeting and the 2025 French National Workshop, on 20-24 October in France.
As part of the FSC, participants presented different topical sessions and lectures on lessons learnt, successes and failures in a transparent and open space. Hosted by the French radioactive waste management authority, l’Agency nationale pour la gestion des dechets radioactifs (ANDRA), the French national workshop highlighted the Cigéo, the Centre Industriel de Stockage Géologique (Industrial Centre for Geological Disposal), project.
The Cigéo project is ANDRA’s initiative to construct a deep geological repository for high-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal.
The national workshop, which included staff from ANDRA, participants from 13 different countries and local stakeholders involved in project implementation, started at the Meuse/Haute-Marne Centre (MHMC) in Bure, France, located in the northeastern part of the country. Local participants included elected officials, a departmental advisor, the Secretary General of the Comité Local d’Information et de Suivi (CLIS), a director of the Public Interest Group, Électricité de France (EDF) and a representative of the Energic 52 55 association.
At the project site, stakeholders shared their experiences on public engagement during the planning of a waste repository. Discussions focused on initiatives implemented to strengthen the attractiveness of local information and visitors’ centres to promote regular and meaningful dialogue with citizens. Participants discussed projects in territories without nuclear facilities, and ways to continue dialogue with stakeholders, despite potential political and generational changes in the future.
National workshop participants on a guided tour of the visitor’s centre of the Cigéo project
During the French national workshop, participants had the opportunity to visit the underground research laboratory of Cigéo. This allowed members to see the plans and progress of deep geological high-level waste (HLW) and intermediate-level waste (ILW) facilities. In addition, participants were given tours of the Environmental Specimen Bank of the Cigéo project to learn more about the outcomes of site characterisation and archival and record keeping processes of long-term chemical and radiological analytical data and samples collected from the site and its surroundings.
Workshop participants on guided tours of the underground research laboratory (top) and the environmental specimen bank of the Cigéo project (bottom).
Photo credit: ANDRA