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Le développement du stockage géologique de déchets permet de s’interroger sur la façon dont le droit français appréhende le sous-sol et ce procédé qui génère des risques et des conflits d’usages à long terme. Le stockage géologique transfert les déchets dans un espace possédant des normes et des enjeux propres. Or, l’encadrement juridique du stockage souterrain de déchets tend à enfermer le sous-sol dans une fonction d’exutoire favorable à la production industrielle. Les règles de droit sur l’accès au sous-sol en sont une illustration : on peut dire qu’il existe une fracture, dans le droit du sous-sol, entre intérêt public et usage industriel. D’un côté, le sous-sol est approprié par l’État au nom de l’intérêt général. De l’autre, cet espace est mis à disposition des exploitants industriels au détriment d’un usage public du sous-sol envisagé plus largement.

As the geological storage of waste develops, the question arises about the French legal framework for the subsurface and these new activities which generate risks and conflicts of use in the long term. In order to better understand the legal issues involved in the geological disposal of waste, this technique needs to be studied as a process related to the currently existing industrial activities on the soil surface. Actually, the process of underground storage makes it possible to move the disadvantages of waste in space and time. Stored waste is not eliminated but moved to a new space which has its own standards. It should be emphasized that the legal framework for underground waste disposal tends to confine the subsoil to an evacuation function favorable to industrial production. The law on access to the geological space is an illustration of this. On the one hand, the geological space suitable for the storage of waste is appropriated by the State in the name of public interest. The geological storage spaces are therefore, like the mines, public goods. On the other hand, this same space is made available to industrial operators, which is restrictive as this is to the detriment of wider and diversified public uses. If the subsoil is appropriated by the State, in a certain way it also escapes the State for the benefit of industrial operators. It can therefore be said that there is a divide in the subsurface law between public interest and industrial use.