Elected officials and activists opposed to the project, called Cigéo, for the deep burial of radioactive waste in Bure (Meuse) presented this Thursday a comic strip entitled
“Panique à Bure”
, aimed at making a
“counter-speech”
heard
and to recall the
“risks”
of the project.
Read also: Nuclear waste: the Cigeo solution considered "the least bad"
Gathered within the Eodra association (Elected officials opposed to the burial of radioactive waste), these elected officials and activists distributed the comic strip at the exit of the students of the Luis Ortiz college in Saint-Dizier (Haute-Marne ), distribution to which the press had been invited.
The National Agency for the Management of Radioactive Waste (Andra), which carries the Cigéo project,
"regularly invites classes to visit its facilities in Bure, makes exhibitions on our forests while they are helping to destroy them, and they call that of pedagogy.
For me, this is the opposite of what we should expect from a national public agency
,
”
laments Irene Gunepin, member of Eodra, at the initiative of the comic book edition.
“Andra pays everything for these visits, the pupils leave with a cap or pencils, watch pro-nuclear films.
We want to provide a counterpart, and show that with this project, the South of Meuse will disappear sooner or later
,
”
adds the activist, contacted by phone by AFP.
Distributed in middle and high schools
The 24-page comic strip offers a fiction set in 2037 and develops the scenario of an accidental fire at the radioactive waste storage center.
Printed in 40,000 copies thanks in particular to the financial support of several associations and foundations, it is distributed free of charge to students of middle and high schools in Meuse and Haute-Marne, the two departments in which the project must be established, if it is authorized. .
"The objective is to inform, to remind that there are risks, which remain hidden, whether in terms of fire, transport of waste, reversibility",
explains Dominique Laurent, mayor of Bettancourt-la -Ferrée, spokesperson for the association.
Andra reacted to the distribution of the comic strip, believing that the story
"is based on various false technical assumptions and numerous
amalgamations"
,
and describes
"unfounded"
human and environmental impacts
, not based on
"any scientific element. "
.
“Contrary to the story told in this book, the safety approach for the design of Cigéo consists of taking into account various accidental scenarios that could occur,”
the Agency recalls in a press release.
"For Cigeo to be authorized, Andra will have to demonstrate the safety of the project within the framework of the creation authorization application (DAC)"
, which will in particular be investigated by the Nuclear Safety Authority, according to the Andra.