Active underground research laboratory operated by ANDRA at 490 metres depth to study geological disposal of radioactive waste, supporting the Cigéo project.
The Laboratoire souterrain de Bure, formally the laboratoire de recherche souterrain de Meuse/Haute-Marne (LSMHM), is an underground research installation operated by the Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs (Andra) beneath the commune of Bure in the Meuse department, on the border with Haute-Marne. It was constructed from 2000 following the loi Bataille of 1991, which mandated research into deep geological disposal of high-level and intermediate-level long-lived radioactive waste. The site at Bure was selected by the French government in December 1998 for its stable, homogeneous Callovo-Oxfordian clay layer situated at approximately 500 metres depth, about 130 to 140 metres thick, and geologically undisturbed for over 100 million years.
Construction involved the sinking of two access shafts of 5 and 4 metres diameter to depths of 508 and 503 metres, and the excavation of more than 2,000 metres of experimental galleries at 445 and 490 metres depth. The laboratory does not and cannot contain radioactive waste. It supports the Cigéo deep geological repository project, for which Andra submitted a construction authorisation application in January 2023.
The Laboratoire souterrain de Bure has its institutional origins in the loi no 91-1381 of 30 December 1991, known as the loi Bataille after its rapporteur Christian Bataille. This law defined three research axes for the management of the most radioactive waste: separation and transmutation, long-term surface storage, and reversible or irreversible deep geological disposal. For the third axis, the law charged the Andra — reconstituted as a public body by the same law — with conducting studies on deep geological storage. Andra also undertook preliminary geological site studies from 1994.
Between 1993 and 1994, approximately thirty territories in eleven departments proposed their candidacy to host an underground laboratory. A process of consultation conducted by Christian Bataille concluded with a report in December 1993, leading the government to retain four candidate sites: Haute-Marne and Meuse (Bure), the Gard (Marcoule), and the Vienne (La Chapelle-Bâton). Geological reconnaissance studies carried out by Andra from 1994 to 1996 narrowed the selection to three sites. The government authorised Andra on 15 May 1996 to submit applications for the construction and operation of underground laboratories, which it did on 2 July 1996 for the Bure site.
In March 1998 the prefectoral decrees required for the Bure construction were issued. On 9 December 1998, the French government selected the Bure site in an interministerial committee decision, specifying that the research must address reversible disposal. On 3 August 1999 a decree authorised Andra to install and operate an underground laboratory on the territory of Bure.
Construction of the laboratory began in October 2000. The two access shafts were sunk using explosives to their target depths of approximately 500 metres; the main shaft has a useful diameter of 5 metres reaching 508 metres depth, and the auxiliary shaft has a diameter of 4 metres reaching 503 metres. The experimental galleries, in contrast, were excavated using a hydraulic rock-breaker. A first experimental gallery at −445 metres was completed on 26 November 2004 and made available to scientists for instrumentation and experiments. On 15 December 2005, the underground tunnelling faces from both shafts met, marking the junction celebrated as the ceremony of Sainte Barbe, patron saint of miners. The creusement of the galleries was completed on 27 April 2006 with the second junction between the shafts. A first phase of construction was complete by 2007, and extension works have continued from 2008.
The laboratory is situated directly in the Callovo-Oxfordian argilite layer. This rock, approximately 160 million years old, is about 130 to 140 metres thick at this location and lies between 420 and 555 metres depth. Its very low permeability and high chemical retention capacity are the properties essential to the confinement of radionuclides. The laboratory comprises surface installations on approximately 17 hectares (including administrative buildings, workshops, analytical laboratories, and a public reception building), the two access shafts, and more than 2,300 metres of underground galleries at 445 and 490 metres depth, equipped with more than 700 boreholes from the gallery walls and more than 11,000 measurement sensors.
Experiments conducted in the laboratory characterise the mechanical, thermal, geochemical, and hydraulic properties of the argilite, including the behaviour of the rock during excavation, its response to heating (as would be caused by high-level waste canisters), and the diffusion and retention of radioactive elements. In 2005, Andra published its Argile 2005 dossier summarising fifteen years of research, concluding that geological disposal in the Callovo-Oxfordian was feasible.
The 2006 law (loi du 28 juin 2006) confirmed deep geological disposal as the reference solution for French high-level and intermediate-level long-lived waste, and required reversibility for at least 100 years. This law directed Andra to design and site a deep geological repository designated Cigéo (Centre industriel de stockage géologique). In 2009 Andra proposed a zone of approximately 30 km² for the underground repository, designated the zone d'intérêt pour la reconnaissance approfondie (ZIRA). A second public debate in 2013 and a further law in 2016 refined the project framework. In 2021 a public inquiry delivered an unconditionally favourable opinion. On 8 July 2022 a decree declared the public utility of Cigéo.
On 16 January 2023 Andra submitted a 10,000-page demande d'autorisation de création (DAC) for Cigéo to the Ministry of Energy Transition. In June 2023 the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN) declared the application admissible, opening a technical instruction process. On 1 December 2023 the Conseil d'Etat confirmed the public utility of the Cigéo project. The Cigéo installation is projected to receive its first waste packages around 2035 to 2040, following a compulsory industrial pilot phase. The laboratory itself, designed and authorised exclusively for research, cannot and will not be used for waste storage.
In January 2016 a collapse in a research gallery caused the death of one worker and injure one other.
