Several hundred people demonstrated on Saturday in Bure (Meuse) against the project, baptized Cigéo, to bury the most radioactive nuclear waste, at the end of the “Meetings of peasant struggles”.
The demonstration went off without a hitch. An important security device had been put in place by the prefecture, which had authorized surveillance by drones and helicopters.
“The sizing (of the device) is relatively large, with several units of mobile forces engaged”, indicated the prefecture, without however specifying the number of agents mobilized.
The procession, opened by a banner “The Meuse is not a nuclear dustbin”, brought together anti-nuclear activists of different nationalities (French, Germans, Swiss, Brazilians, Colombians), local residents and families in a noisy and festive atmosphere. for a walk to the neighboring town of Mandres-en-Barrois. Flags of La France insoumise, the Confédération paysanne, the Sortir dunuclear network and the Solidaires union were visible.
“Nearly a thousand people took part in the Meetings, and we were between 700 and 800 for the march”, declared Fred, market gardener and member of the organizing committee, who did not wish to specify his name. “Some internationals did not take part in the march, they believe that the maintenance of order in France is too violent”, he assured.
The demonstration aimed to denounce the “forced passage” of the State to “impose the landfill center despite the opposition of the inhabitants of the Meuse”, in the words of Marie-Neige Houchard, departmental co-secretary for Europe -ecology-The Greens (EELV).
“There is complete democratic denial around this project. And then we water elected officials with public money to buy consciences, ”she lamented, referring to the 30 million euros distributed each year by the two Public Interest Groups (GIP) in Meuse and Haute- Marne for local economic development.
“Cigéo gives the impression that we can use nuclear power, that the waste is manageable, whereas it has been there for tens of thousands of years,” said Pierre Ferté, a 58-year-old beekeeper, who came to of the Marne. “Burying them is really ostriching, it’s not a solution. »
Andra’s Meuse site currently only houses a scientific laboratory
Project manager in peasant agriculture, Marie Michaud, 30, says she is concerned about “the land grabbing by Andra (National Agency for the management of radioactive waste, which carries the Cigéo project) and Safer” (Société d Land Development and Rural Settlement) for the benefit of Cigéo.
“It’s very complicated for a young farmer to settle here, because Andra has control over the land,” says the young woman from Moselle. “But today, we need farmers to make this territory live”.
In January, Andra filed a creation authorization request (DAC) for Cigeo, aimed at carrying out the nuclear waste burial project at Bure.
For the time being, Andra’s Meuse site only houses a scientific laboratory, no radioactive waste is stored there.