Manche storage centre

In 1967, the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) created Infratome, a private company which was a subsidiary of the fr:Mines de potasse d'Alsace.

After considering the Biville dunes, owned by the army, the decision was made to build the CSM to the east of the La Hague reprocessing plant, in a wetland area called the "Haut Marais".

Then the safer and easier storage on the surface was adopted: Concrete blocks are poured around the casks, then covered with a plastic film and earth.

For several years, plutonium, radium, thorium, and waste containing tritium from all of the French nuclear power plants had been stored in 6 vaults in a structure called TB2.

The leaks would be due to an overflow at the surface of the deep drainage network on the grounds of heavy rainfalls and malfunctions of the lifting pump.

In 1994, the last package was received, then the storage was closed by the ANDRA in order to prepare the transition into the monitoring phase (planned for a period of around 300 years).