“Commission of inquiry aimed at establishing the reasons for the loss of sovereignty and energy independence of France”: this is the title of the parliamentary inquiry led by the deputy of the Les Républicains party Raphaël Schellenberger. The possible power cuts have not yet taken place and we already feel the desire to find those responsible, and even, among some, the desire to fight it out. It is very clear in the hearing of Yves Bréchet, former High Commissioner for Atomic Energy. For him, the crisis that the electricity system is going through would not be, contrary to the diagnosis of the experts, a simple case of corrosion under stress difficult to anticipate, but the sign of an infinitely deeper evil: the scientific nullity of our policies.
The current crisis provides the ideal opportunity to revive nostalgia for the 1970s and the triumphant atom, the Messmer plan and the blessed era when one reactor was built in five years and 58 reactors in twenty-five years… The It is also an opportunity to denounce the pusillanimity of politicians after Chernobyl and Fukushima, even their “betrayal” with the abandonment of Superphénix and Astrid! For lack of a fast neutron reactor, explains Mr. Bréchet, “Nuclear energy is doomed to suffocate under its waste”. Which indeed questions the viability of the sector…
But more than these atomic diatribes, one of the interests of the hearings is that many experts calmly answered the rather strange question from parliamentarians on a supposed “France’s loss of energy sovereignty”. Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of Total, recalled that 63% of the energy consumed in France comes from gas and oil. The co-founder of Carbone 4, Jean-Marc Jancovici, pointed out that France had lost its energy independence… at the time of Germinal : France indeed imported about a third of its coal. Economist Jacques Percebois noted “that one can be dependent without being vulnerable, and independent while being so”. Energy systems are based on such a diversity of materials and technologies that guaranteeing a form of sovereignty implies many dependencies and an industrial presence dispersed in immense value chains.
Nuclear with American help
Concerning nuclear power, so readily associated with national independence, the historian Yves Bouvier recalled that the park had been built under license from the American Westinghouse: in exchange for royalties, French engineers went to train in the United States and industrial progress was closely watched by the Americans. Former EDF CEO Pierre Gadonneix insisted on the role of imitation, not innovation, in explaining the success of France’s nuclear power programme. The key: to start from the same, “bolt for bolt”, he said, the proven Westinghouse model.
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