In 1974, due to the oil crisis that followed the Yom Kippur War, France decided to develop a very large nuclear industry, including a number of NPPs and units to recycle spent fuel. The initiation of this significant pro­gramme had the effect of greatly increasing the volume of all categories of RAW: that of high-level and long-lived waste, coming from the recycling of the spent fuel, as well as that of short-lived low — and intermediate-level waste.

To address this situation, the government asked the CEA to create within its ranks an organization to take responsibility for managing all this waste. ANDRA was created inside the CEA in 1979.