The government has given the go-ahead for construction of two underground radwaste research laboratories to assess the sites as a possible deep geological repositories for high level waste. As expected, one will be in granite and the other in clay, most likely at Bure.
Under French legislation, parliament is expected to make a final choice of site by 2006.
The government has also decided to create a new, independent, nuclear safety authority. The Institute for Nuclear Safety and Protection will be given a statue separating it from the the Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique.
