Cedra press release : Cigéo/Bure in brief
Article published on the Cedra website on 20 February. Other articles on struggles can be found on their website.
What’s been happening recently? Between news, announcements and reviews? Not all the news about Cigéo and the growing nuclear threat to the Meuse/Haute-Marne region can be covered in a comprehensive press release. There would be far too much to say. So we’re offering you a regular round-up of news and interesting storieson the subject!
An exhibition in Bois-Lejuc … even though it’s off-limits to walkers!
Andra’s latest provocation: photo panels about what would happen to Bois Lejus if Cigéo were to be built, installed in the wood, despite the fact that Andra is threatening to destroy it and that it has been off-limits to walkers since it took over ownership ( under penalty of a €500 fine).
The unthinkable continues to unfold in the nuclear revival.
Uranium prices rocket
The extraction and supply of uranium: you’ll never hear the government talk about this, as it’s just like atomic waste, it’s out of place in the official line, which is completely watered down. The price of uranium is rocketing, and there are two main reasons for this:
– France (which is 100% dependent on foreign countries) is experiencing major supply difficulties: the Orano plant in Niger has been shut down since the coup d’état, and Russia has become an embarrassing trading partner, including its satellites. To make up for these difficulties, France has announced plans for a new mine in Mongolia, a project that is already controversial and not accepted by the local population (see the 18 October 2023 article [in franch] on Reporterre “Polluted water, sick animals, the appetites of French nuclear power worry Mongolians“).
– The international interest in nuclear power since the COP28, where 20 countries called for a tripling of nuclear power capacity by 2050. Which brings to mind another unthinkable fact (the revival of nuclear power is clearly failing to take account of a major factor): world uranium stocks are not infinite. If nuclear power tripled between now and 2050, the world’s economically exploitable uranium reserves would be depleted in just a few years (see this contribution [in french] from 20 December 2023 on Reporterre “Why the nuclear revival is a mirage“).
Read the article [in french] dated 24 January 2024 on Reporterre ” Le prix de l’uranium flambe” (in French)
Nuclear power unearthed
Everything seems to be said in Ange Pottin’s new book ” Nuclear power imagined – the capitalist dream without the Earth “: by concealing the material dimension of nuclear power (its waste, its mines, its heavy and polluting infrastructures), the nuclear industry is spreading an optimistic vision of the future of the industry, a vision that is completely distorted. A completely ungrounded vision, with only the fission of uranium in the reactor in mind, independent of any earthly, geographical or temporal anchorage. We’ll be rushing out to get this book, which reminds us of the unthinkable nature of nuclear power and the image of “unearthed” energy created by the atomic industry.
Interview [in french] with the author in Reporterre on 1 February 2024: “Mines, waste… the nuclear imagination is out of touch with reality“.
Interview with the author in Le Monde :
An article [in french] published on 31 January 2024 in the journal Techniques de l’Ingénieur, entitled “Will there be enough people to build 6 EPRs?“, raises good questions about the “downside” of the nuclear revival, and even criticises the revival in its preamble. It’s worth pointing out that the journalist’s questions apply to six EPRs “only”: once you get beyond the rhetoric and come up against certain realities…
Another “aside”: massive resignations at IRSN
Waves of resignations at IRSN in the midst of a nuclear revival – what a mess (and not a reassuring one)!
Half of the IRSN department responsible for preventing malicious acts and terrorism in the civil nuclear sector has reportedly resigned in disagreement with the consequences of the bill to merge IRSN and ASN, which is supposed to ease the process of nuclear reactivation.
The ballad in Buristan by Jean-Luc Porquet – a series of 3 articles in Le Canard Enchaîné
(1) “Bure, the Prefect keeps an eye on the dustbin“: Chronicle of a typical day around Bure! Lots of anecdotes, a sharp eye and a snapshot of the area: this first article is well worth the diversions.
(2) “Bure, Mirror, who’s the dustbin? ” Jean-Luc Porquet continues his tour of Bure, relating what he hears and sees in the course of his encounters there. He recalls that one of Andra’s directors admitted that there was a layer of clay similar to that at Bure under Andra’s headquarters in Chatenay, “except that it would have been the whole of the Ile-de-France to explain Cigéo to“. It’s amusing to note that around Bure there are more (gleaming, nuclear-paid) street lamps than inhabitants.
What else struck him? The opponents who are involved in a network of activities and projects to bring life to the area and create a living network that Andra would prefer to bury with its waste: The opponents are not only fighting against Cigéo, they are also living in the area and sowing the seeds of a desire to move there (yes, because even brand new streetlights aren’t enough to make that happen!). ).
(3) “Bure, from the depths of these pyramids…“. This concludes his escapade in Bure and sets the final scene for his stay in the area, with Andra’s laboratory standing out in the landscape, the EDF building, a hotel-restaurant actually dedicated to Andra staff and the police, right next to a petrol station and a bakery with a deserted car park. The key words in this 3rd and final article? Vertigo, pyramid, sarcophagus, radiochats, descents, shafts, ventilation, hydrogen, geothermal energy… Have a try !
And in the meantime, Huma’s ‘scientific’ column does not set very high standards!
It merely repeats Andra’s talking points, with a few lies thrown in for good measure. Future generations will not have to bear the cost of Cigéo? This is not true. Very little money has been set aside for the project, and its cost is grossly underestimated and not even updated at this stage. Nor does it include the cost of retrievability. And when the money isn’t set aside for it, and it’s more expensive than expected, we all know how that works out (see Stocamine). It looks good on paper, but if anything goes wrong, future generations will be left to thank you: the cost of retrieving the waste would be exorbitant, if it were even technologically feasible, which has not been demonstrated either. Fantastic!
Read the article [in french] published in l’Humanité on 22 January 2024 entitled “The right of future generations“.
Nuclear Jobs Day or job blackmail?
We issued this press release [in french] from Coordination Stop Cigéo in response to the nuclear careers day organised by Andra and EDF at the Bure laboratory for schoolchildren and jobseekers.
This attempt to blackmail jobs in the departments affected by Cigéo is scandalous. But there are alternatives: directing young people towards jobs that will get them out of nuclear power, without risking their health and without exposing them to a disaster. According to Ademe, nearly a million jobs could be created by 2050 in the ecological transition sector (see this report [in french] by a group of associations and trade unions on the Greenpeace website).
Examples include energy production (installation and maintenance of wind towers, solar panels, etc.), home renovation and insulation, ecological agriculture and transport and mobility. A major advantage of these jobs is that they cannot be relocated.
If, by any chance, the nuclear industry still appeals to you, we’d recommend reading this cover letter for a position [in english] as a welder in the nuclear industry, which certainly doesn’t lack pizzazz 😉
Confédération Paysanne meeting near Bure during the mobilisations
The Confédération Paysanne du Grand-Est gathered in Cirfontaines to make its positions and demands known. The meeting took place on the farm of Jean-Pierre Simon, a well-known farmer for his fight against Cigéo.
The meeting was supposed to be followed by exchanges with the Bure fighters on agricultural, energy and land issues, but circumstances dictated otherwise. The national secretariat of the Confédération Paysanne will be back shortly, and we look forward to discussing the issues, as the Confédération Paysanne and its departmental branches are important allies in the struggle.
Pro-nuke clowning
On 16 January, Xavier Huillard, CEO of Vinci, stated that it was urgent to build … 20 EPRs! Mr Huillard seems to have forgotten one thing: concepts of urgency and the construction of EPRs don’t go very well together (whether based on the Flamanville fiasco or on the delays expected even before the “new EPRs” are built).
On the same day, the Observatoire du Nucléaire (Nuclear Observatory) responded to Fabien Bouglé’s succession of idiotic comments about nuclear power, heard on TV in front of speechless journalists. A welcome decoding of this frightening digest of misinformation (available here):
First of all, NO, there are no ‘nuclear waste-eating‘ reactors, and the dreadful ecologists are not responsible for the failures of the nuclear industry either, which is doing a fine job of managing its own to scupper its outrageously expensive projects (cc. Superphenix, cc. Astrid!).
Secondly, NO, the nuclear industry can’t blame anyone for its overall failure. It has its share of problems for which it is directly responsible: the industrial and financial disaster of the EPRs, the colossal scandal of the faulty parts at Le Creusot, the stress corrosion affair that shut down half the fleet, etc.
And thirdly, NO, France has not become an importer of electricity from Germany since the closure of Fessenheim. There have always been exchanges in both directions, and France is a particular importer during harsh winters because of the energy absurdity of electric heating… ETC!
Three local events in the diary!
16 March 2024: the Energik festival organised by Habitants Vigilants in Gondrecourt near Bure, to mark the association’s 15th anniversary! All the details on the blog:
https://festival-energik.over-blog.com/2023/11/presentation-du-festival.html
17/23 April 2024: Spring anti-authoritarian meetings near Bure! Info here :
16/18 August 2024: Les Bure’lesques, 2024 edition! More information coming soon: https://burefestival.org/
20/02/2024
Et sinon, 2 jours avant
on écrivait ça.
Cover letter for a nuclear welder position in N...
manif-est.info If need correction of the translation : please, contact traductions-bureburebure(a]riseup(dot]net To the attention of the Human Resources department of Fives Nordon (piping su... Lire la suite
18/02/2024
Et sinon, le jour même
on a écrit ça.
Cedra press release : Cigéo/Bure in brief
Article published on the Cedra website on 20 February. Other articles on struggles can be found on their website. What’s been happening recently? Between news, announcements and review... Lire la suite
20/02/2024