Then we enter in the area close to bure, infested with police surveillence and pretty abandoned otherwise. There is almost no cars on the roads, many houses in the few villages are empty or completly falling apart. The perfect place for the gigantic nuclear waste burial project CIGEO (an acronym for Centre Industriel de Stockage Géologique, or Industrial Centre for Geological Disposal). ANDRA (National agency for the management of radioactive waste ) didn’t choose this area because the ground is paticulary suitable to contain the radiating material but rather because it was possible to convince a big part of the thin local population that it is a good idea to bury tons of nuclear waste that is dangerous for another ~100000 years. Which failed in many other places beforehand. “In Meuse and Haute-Marne departments—whose economic fabric has been ravaged by decades of industrial restructuring, the big lottery of the “nuclear state” is like hitting the jackpot. A small portion of these funds are paid as “direct grants” to fifteen municipalities located within a 10 km radius of the Andra site in Bure. Estimated at around €500 per inhabitant per year, this direct aid represents approximately €1.8 million per year for each GIP. The rest is distributed according to seven “development axes,” ranging from industry to “sustainable development” and tourism. The funds are allocated to private companies of all kinds—from precision engineering to cheese factories—as well as social housing agencies, retirement homes, and healthcare facilities.” <=quoted from article in BASTA!
“The village of Bure is installing new street lighting: long gray poles with a modern, sleek design, adorned with a rod that diffuses a soft light, sometimes blue, sometimes green. A happy coincidence: blue and green are the colors of the Andra logo. Thank you, Cigéo.”
New roads, new street lights, a new community center in bure,… There is a big museum that presents the project as an innovative and sustainable solution. 15 to 36 billion euros is the estimated budget for this madness and which makes it possible to continue the nuclear energy strategy of the french state without to much questioning. Nowhere the trace of an idea to reduce the production of the waste… Nuclear energy has a green image because no greenhouse gases are produced. But it is anything but clean: The extraction of uranium has been stopped everywhere in fRance (and the leftovers from the mines are severe pollution problems), now it comes from nigeria and kazakhztan where the environmental consequences are devastating, out of sight of french citizens and mostly unknown. Typical postcolonial exploitation… So the fight against the nuclear waste dump is rather a fight against the nuclear system itsself then against this project in particular, because the main damage is not caused here and now where the profit is made from it. (check this movie in french about the consequences nuclear mining in Gabon)
We arrive savely to la gare, on of the sites of resistance in the area. The place (an ancient trainstation) has been bought many years ago because some people understood the strategical value of the place for the CIGEO project: It is located on the futur railwayline that is supposed to bring the nuclear waste to its grave.
“It is a place of resource, an organizational hub, and a welcoming space for curious individuals, collectives, and activists opposed to Cigéo… but that’s not all: we fight against all forms of authoritarianism, discrimination, oppression, the destruction of life, the mechanisms of capitalism and productivism… And of course, you are free to come!”
drawing game: we start to two of us simultaneously at one agreed point of the picture. You can see us hanging around in front of la gare.
There is plenty of space for us to set up tents and the first night we use their kitchen to make food. I use their couch and am overwhelmed by its softness after 2 weeks of squatting the ground. But it is invasive to have all at a sudden 20 unknown people use your living space, so we set up a temporary outside kitchen under a roof. I found an old rocketstove that I could pimp with a piece of ovenpipe. It is super heavy but thats not a problem as we are not cycling with it. (and it gets the idea of it into the group, which until now only used gas-stoves for communal cooking.) We bring tables and ratproof food storage containers et voilà!
We recieved a message from one person who had left the tour sick, that they had Covid. So we have a emergency circle where we discuss what to do about it. Many of us had already put this topic into the archives in their brains; we had left behind a huge pack of covid-tests in the last project… Should we have a more strict hygene protocoll? How do our hosts want us to behave? Should we all get tested? How to inform new people joining? Who feels in danger when exposed to covid? Would they be comfortable sharing it in front of everybody? After a round of sharing how we feel we came up with some ideas and talked about the usefullness of testing. As there is one person who feels comfortable only with all of us testing (rather for the inclusivity aspect of vulnurable people than for themselves) we decide to get new tests. And are all negative, even the 2 sick amongst us!
There where different activities during our stay, a tour to see the other places of the struggle, some gardening and garlic braiding in the collective farm, a community market, a little party in the bar at l’augustine and also the sauna was heated up at that place on our last evening. We had a morning of discussions where we talked about the anti-racism focus of this years biketour (which was totally abscent until then!!) and about the inclusivity of the tour (how we respect each others needs, how we communicate about the pysical limits that the tour presents).
This year the atomic waste burial project has been declared “of public utility” and therefore all landowners that so far didn’t want to sell their property to ANDRA can be expropriated in september. That’s why there is a big camp planned to avoid eviction: “Le septembre infini” where they invite during one month (and forever^^) for all kinds of activities: workshops, discussions, construction and just live togther to occupy la gare.
The stay in la gare was empowering, we overcame the police pressure, delt with it quite well in respect of everybodys needs and we could take part and discover this David vs Goliath struggle. Some of us will for sure come back!
I didn’t continue the journey of Ecotopia. But the bicycle I liberated and repared in Dijon and that brought me without any issue here is contiuing the way with somebody else. If everything works out fine, I’ll catch it again end auf august :)