With regard to the repository, on one hand, there is an ongoing public debate; on the other hand, ANDRA had to present a blueprint to the government in 2014; if approved by the French National Assembly in 2016, construction would begin the following year. The assembly will then consider licensing the facility to open in 2025. The facility is anticipated to operate for 100 years before final closure although the storage would be reversible.

Nuclear power used to enjoy fairly good cross-party support in the country, and the economic incentives that the storage facility offers to the Bure region have been welcomed by many locals. Anti-nuclear groups also have little clout.

Nevertheless, some small organizations (Burestop 55, Bure Zone Libre and EODRA) are opposing the project and showing their discontent organizing several actions and events. In 2017, a local farmer, J.P. Simon was brought to court for lending a tractor to demonstators ("zadistes", as newspapers called them). The Confederation Paysanne supports him.  (See also a very informative article in the Financial Times in 2016, in Sources and Methods (2), and the update on the demonstrations in 2017 in the section Project Details).

Disposability reversible at least for 100 years.

Designed to hold French military and civilian atomic waste classified as having intermediate and high levels of radioactivity, some of which can remain dangerous for more than 100,000 years.

Update.- 2017. There have been local demonstrations from time to time by what newspapers call "zadistes". On August 15, 2017, "Police used water cannon and fired tear gas and stun grenades as they battled with demonstrators protesting at plans to store nuclear waste... Protest organisers said six people were badly hurt and about 30 lightly injured in the clash in Bure. The local prefecture said that, according to calls to the emergency services, at least three demonstrators had been injured. Two gendarmes were hurt by a "home-made device thrown by protestors", the prefecture said... The rally was held to oppose plans to store highly radioactive waste 500 metres (1,640 feet) underground at a nearby site -- the dangerous long-term by-product of France's extensive nuclear energy programme. Debate over Bure has been raging for years, pitching France's vocal environmental lobby against its powerful nuclear industry. In July 2017, the National Agency for the Management of Radioactive Waste (ANDRA) said construction of the storage site would start in 2022 at the earliest. But earlier this month (August 2017), a national watchdog, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), declared it had "reservations" about the project."[1]

The cost of the project could go up to € 25 billion [2].