The Social and Economic Committee (CSE) of the IRSN and its inter-union organisation have requested that the merger of the Institute of Nuclear Safety Experts with the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) into a single authority be postponed for one year, deploring the too short deadline for its entry into force on 1 January 2025.
The CSE of the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) has issued “an unfavourable opinion” on the proposed merger of the two organisations and recommended its “postponement to 1 January 2026”, according to its opinion published after a meeting held on 12 September and consulted on Tuesday. It calls for this period to be used to “confidently build the organisation and operation of the ASNR”, the Nuclear Safety and Radiological Protection Authority, the future entity that should bring together the two current bodies responsible for safety: the IRSN, technical and scientific expert, and ASN, the plant police.
The CSE considers that the draft of the transitional organisation proposed for 1 January “was drawn up hastily with respect to the date of execution” and “alerts” the ASN College “about worrying findings of a lack of control and a certain improvisation in the management of the project”. It warns of “significant risks of dysfunction and blockage of the ASNR” which would result in “not allowing it to carry out its missions of expertise and control of nuclear safety and radiological protection”.
Too short a time frame between the promulgation of the law and its operational application
For its part, the IRSN inter-union (CFDT, CGT and CFE-CGC) considers that the delay between the promulgation of the law last May, which recorded this merger, and the entry into operation of the ASNR on January 1 is too short. “Between the promulgation of the law on May 21, 2024 and the operational application of the ASNR on January 1, 2025, there are only seven months left,” the inter-union stressed on Tuesday in a press release.
The trade union had already expressed its “concerns” about the reorganisation process last July, expressing alarm at the lack of a social impact study and the fate of certain functions. The Green Party MP for Loire-Atlantique, Julie Laernoes, announced on Monday the presentation of a bill to repeal this reform, considering that it “will degrade the quality and independence of technical expertise, threaten the transparency of the regulatory and control system and cause disorganisation at the worst possible time for the nuclear industry”.
Source: BFM TV
