French national radioactive waste management agency (Andra)

Created in 1979 within the CEA, it was established by the December 1991 Waste Act as a public body in charge of the long-term management of all radioactive waste, under the supervision of the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea (formerly the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Environment), and the Ministry of Research. Its 3 basic missions were extended and their funding secured through the 2006 Planning Act:

• a R&D mission to propose safe long-term solution for radioactive waste without current disposal system; this mission includes long-term storage, since the 2006 Planning Act, in order to propose interim solutions while final ones are being studied (the long-term storage issue was initially entrusted to the CEA according to the December 1991 Waste Act), 
• an industrial mission concerning, on one hand, waste acceptance criteria and control and, on the other hand, siting, construction, operation, closure and monitoring of repositories. This mission includes as well a public service mission in terms of i) collection of waste of the “small-scale nuclear activities” producers or owners (including the so-called “household” radioactive waste, ie waste owned by private individuals) and ii) clean-up and rehabilitation of orphan polluted sites, 
• an information mission, notably through the regular publication of the National Inventory of radioactive materials and waste. This mission includes as well an active policy of dialogue with stakeholders both at national and local level (for instance through the activities of the various local information and oversight committees established for every INB or the underground research laboratory).

Organisation

It is composed as detailed below :

Headquarters near Paris with specific divisions relevant to Andra's missions as the scientific division, the project division, the industrial division (in charge as well of the public service mission), the risk management division (in charge notably of safety, quality and environmental issues and of the National Inventory of radioactive materials and waste) and support divisions as General secretariat (administration, purchase and contract, accounting and control, legal and insurance), human resources division, communication division and international division (which includes a business unit for commercial contracts with foreign organizations),

The industrial division runs as well, with on-site staff :

• the CSM surface repository officially under post-closure monitoring phase since 2003 and located in the Manche district near the AREVA La Hague facility,
• the CSA surface repository dealing with low- and intermediate-level short-lived radioactive waste and the near-by CIRES surface repository dealing with very-low-level radioactive waste, both operating in the Aube district.

The Meuse/Haute-Marne Centre CMHM with the Underground Research Laboratory LSMHM located in Bure (Meuse district at the border of the Haute-Marne district) and the Technological Exhibition Facility ETe located in Saudron (Haute-Marne district at the border of the district Meuse).