Underground laboratories under the 1991 law
Underground laboratories for the study of the geological storage of long-life waste

In accordance with the law of December 30, 1991 (Box 2) on the management of high-level long-lived radioactive waste, in January 1994 the French government authorized Andra to carry out reconnaissance surveys at three sites in the Gard, Vienne and Meuse/Haute-Marne regions (figure 2 ). The objectives of these surveys were to confirm that the proposed geological formations were suitable for the installation of an underground research laboratory, and to propose an architecture for these laboratories.

At the Gard site, operations were concentrated on a triangle formed by the valleys of the...