Deputies insisted on tight control for setting up the site, including rigorous testing procedures beforehand.

While only 0.2 percent of the more than one million tonnes of waste produced in the past 40 years was considered the most dangerous, it accounted for 91.68 percent of total radioacivity emitted, according to official figures.

At present it is stored on the surface in secure conditions, but it could not remain there indefinitely, parliament was told.

The cost of confining it over 100 years is estimated at some 15 billion euros (19 billion dollars).

The bill also provided for continued research into reducing the half-life of radioactive materials, and barred the storage of foreign waste in France.

France derives most of its electricity from nuclear power, and only Green deputies criticised the bill, saying that the best way to deal with nuclear waste was to stop producing it.

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