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EDF Sees No Hit to Provisions as France Sets New Cigeo Waste Costs

-- France's Electricite de France said on Friday that the updated industrial reference cost for Cigeo, the country's multi-billion-euro deep geological repository for radioactive waste, will have a limited impact on its balance sheet.

The state-backed utility said its current provisions, as of the end of 2025, remain aligned with the government's latest estimates.

The decree, dated March 30, formalizes the latest cost trajectory for one of Europe's most ambitious infrastructure projects.

The project, developed by the National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management, is designed to store high-level and long-lived intermediate-level radioactive waste hundreds of meters underground.

Nuclear operators, including EDF, the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, and Orano, are responsible for financing the site under French law. The companies are required to set aside massive financial provisions to cover the project's lifecycle, which is expected to span more than a century.

The project's cost estimates are subject to periodic revisions by the energy ministry, tied to technical milestones such as commissioning and the conclusion of the "industrial pilot phase."

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