Two air-cooling towers of the Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux nuclear power plant, photographed in Saint-Laurent-Nouan (Loir-et-Cher) on March 30, 2023 (AFP/Archives/GUILLAUME SOUVANT)
Contested, the merger of the two institutions responsible for nuclear safety in France had been rejected in April by Parliament: the Elysée returned to the charge on Wednesday by announcing a new bill to this effect “by the fall” .
This operation would bring together in a new “major independent authority” the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), a safety expert, and the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), responsible for decisions on power plants, according to a press release from the Presidency of the Republic.
This authority, “whose financial and human resources would be reinforced (…) will make it possible to adapt nuclear safety in the face of the three challenges of the revival” of civil nuclear power wanted by Emmanuel Macron, according to the same source.
These “challenges” are “the extension of the existing fleet”, the “construction of new EPRs”, new generation reactors, and “the development of small innovative modular reactors”, listed the executive.
The Nuclear Policy Council (CPN) meeting on Wednesday at the Elysée “confirmed the government’s desire to move forward in this direction by ensuring that all the missions of ASN and IRSN are preserved”, according to the same source.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher during a visit to the Grand’Maison dam and its hydroelectric power station, in Vaujany, in Isère, on June 26, 2023 (AFP/Archives/Jeff PACHOUD)
The CPN therefore “assigned the mission to the Minister of Energy Transition (Agnès Pannier-Runacher, editor’s note) to initiate consultations with stakeholders and parliamentarians with a view to preparing a bill by the fall”, completed the presidency.
This announcement came a week after the authors of a parliamentary report had recommended the merger of the two institutions, in the face of the expected increase in the workload in monitoring the power plants, present and future.
The reform, wanted by the Elysée, was rejected in April by Parliament, against a backdrop of criticism of the method and concerns for transparency and the quality of expertise.
Since the announcement of the presidential intentions, IRSN employees, but also nuclear experts and parliamentarians, have been standing up against this merger project: they see it as a loss of independence, competence and capacity for expression. experts.
– EPR2s at Bugey –
Last week, the IRSN inter-union had in particular described the parliamentary report as “partial and biased”.
After multiple round trips, Parliament adopted the nuclear stimulus bill in May. But despite the will of the government, a component providing for a reform of nuclear safety had been rejected the previous month.
At the time, the Ministry of Energy Transition had judged that it was “too early” to decide on the continuation of this reform, without therefore burying it definitively.
At the end of the Nuclear Policy Council on Wednesday, the presidency also revealed that it had chosen the Bugey nuclear site (Ain) to host the third pair of future new generation EPR2 reactors.
The Penly (Seine-Maritime) and Gravelines (Nord) sites had already been designated for the construction of two EPR2s each.
Mr. Macron announced in February 2022, two months before being re-elected, a vast recovery plan for civilian nuclear power, with the construction of 6 to 14 new generation reactors by 2050.
100% renationalized, EDF has not been listed on the Paris stock exchange since June 8, 2023 (AFP/Archives/GUILLAUME SOUVANT)
“The location of the first phase of the EPR2 construction program has now been stopped,” noted the Elysée. EDF had mentioned either Bugey or Tricastin (Drôme) for this third installation.
“Technical studies and analyzes will continue on the Tricastin site with a view to hosting future nuclear reactors”, according to the press release.
Earlier Wednesday, the CEO of EDF, Luc Rémont, told deputies that his recently renationalized company would have to boost its investments to 25 billion euros per year (compared to 16.39 billion in 2022).
This is the level of investment required, according to Mr. Rémont, to meet the group’s many industrial challenges, starting with the construction of the new EPR2s.
© 2023 AFP
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