Deadly landslide at planned French nuclear waste site via The Local

One person died and another was left seriously injured on Tuesday after a landslide at a planned underground nuclear waste site in France.

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The deadly landslide occurred in an underground laboratory site at Bure in the Meuse department (see map below).

The site is managed by the National Agency for the Management of Nuclear Waste (Andra) and is designed to hold waste 500 metres underground, once it opens for use.

The project is still in a testing stage with scientists examining whether the most toxic nuclear waste could be contained safely underground.

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The Meuse/Haute Marne Underground Research Laboratory aims to study the geological formation of the area to work out if this would be a safe place to store France’s highly radioactive waste.