The pension reform is not the only text that will animate the benches of Parliament at the beginning of the year. Presented to the Council of Ministers at the beginning of November and approved in first reading by the senators at the end of January, the bill “relating to the acceleration of procedures related to the construction of new nuclear facilities in the vicinity of existing nuclear sites and the operation of existing facilities “today passes through the hands of the deputies starting at 4:00 p.m.
In advance, the text approved in committee last Wednesday where the deputies spoke in favor of one of the measures added by the Senate and which provides for the elimination of the objective of reducing the share of nuclear energy in the French electricity mix to 50% by 2035. As expected, right-wing parliamentarians have positioned themselves against this provision that dates from 2015 and criticized by pro-nuclearists in a context of energy crisis. But the abolition of it is disputed by several elected leftists, who are most hostile to this nuclear renaissance initiated by Emmanuel Macron during his famous Belfort speech in February 2022.
Simplify administrative procedures
These four words summarize the main lines of the bill that is part of the construction program for 6 EPR2 type reactors, to which another 8 could be added, for their commissioning in the 2035-2037 period. The first pair of EPR2s will be installed at Penly in the Seine-Maritime and will be followed by a second at Graveline in the north. The location of the third should be in the Rhone Valley, in Bugey or Tricastin. The bill aims to encourage the construction of new nuclear reactors by simplifying administrative procedures. It is limited to new facilities located at or near existing nuclear sites, which “would not add a period of two to three years to the construction of a reactor,” according to Agnès Pannier-Runacher. The Minister for Energy Transition has also set a target of 2027 for “the first concrete pour”.
Specifically, the plots will be exempt from planning authorization, ensuring conformity control by the State. The right of expropriation will be made more flexible. Or works could even be started on buildings not intended to receive radioactive substances before closing the public investigation. Starting in June 2024, EDF will be able, even before obtaining the green light from the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), to carry out non-nuclear work at Penly, such as the consolidation and “reprofiling” of the cliff, the “earthworks “, the “clear” and “clear”.
Life extension of current reactors
Thus, the bill is about future nuclear infrastructure, but its second main component concerns existing sites whose useful life the executive wants to extend to more than 60 years. The Élysée thus convened a nuclear policy council to launch this project at the beginning of the year. “We are expanding the reactors as much as possible, in terms of nuclear safety issues, first beyond 40 years, then beyond 50 years,” Elisabeth Borne insisted before the commission of inquiry on French energy independence on March 2.
In this logic, the legislative text puts an end to the systematization of the definitive shutdowns of nuclear facilities that have been immobilized for two consecutive years. Thus, the senators imposed the revision of the decree that provides for the closure of 12 existing reactors. All these measures are intended to stop “having the shameful nuclear” in the words of the macronist rapporteur Maud Bregeon. According to the former EDF engineer, the bill “will make it possible to achieve carbon neutrality” and better energy sovereignty.
As a reminder, France, where nuclear energy usually represents between 70 and 80% of electricity production, decided in 2015 to close 14 of its 58 reactors, following a change announced by President Emmanuel Macron in favor of ‘a relaunch’ . Nuclear power accounts for about 70% of electricity production in general. Due to stoppages due to corrosion and the low availability of the nuclear park, this proportion stood at only 63% in 2022.
Merger of the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety in ASN
A few weeks ago, the text seemed to be able to benefit from the renewed popularity of the nuclear sector in the midst of the energy crisis, but two factors could inflame the debates in the Assembly. On the one hand, the “significant” fissure recently discovered in the pipes of a reactor at the Penly power station that is precisely to house the first pair of EPR2. On the other hand, the announced disappearance of the IRSN, the scientific police of nuclear risk, which the executive wants to merge at least in part into the Nuclear Security Authority. The government made this decision at a Nuclear Policy Council on February 3 and incorporated it into the bill as an amendment. This “fusion” project is “incomprehensible”, denounced in a statement the deputies of the Nupes left-wing coalition, who consider it “essential to maintain the independence between the regulatory function (ASN) and the expert function (IRSN)”.
With the transfer of some 1,800 IRSN engineers, doctors or even geologists, in particular to the power plant police, the Government wants to “speed up the review and decision-making processes of the ASN to respond to the growing volume of activities related to the relaunch of the sector”. while the Ministry of Energy Transition denies any “budgetary objective”. With the merger of the two, IRSN experts fear that their work will no longer be guided by the sole criteria of security, but also by the concerns of the operators. The personnel of the two structures warn against a reorganization that is a source of destabilization, costly in time and energy, while colossal files are already being investigated (design of future reactors, expansion of old ones, etc.).
A counterproductive measure with respect to recovery objectives?
Bernard Accoyer, former president of the National Assembly, head of the Nuclear Heritage and Climate Association, accuses IRSN of “misrepresenting” its role when it makes “public of some of its analyzes responding to references from the ‘ASN’. For him, the DNA must to have the confidentiality of the data until the issuance of its decision.According to François Jeffroy, delegate of the CFDT at the IRSN, “the opinions of the IRSN are disturbing. If the IRSN is in the ASN, there will be no more publicity and the problems will be resolved.” In fact, the publication of IRSN’s opinions is provided for by a 2015 law. However, ASN can already ask you to postpone it depending on the case , by virtue of a framework agreement between the two entities.The presidency of the ASN, in favor of this merger, for its part, invokes its desire for greater efficiency, and ensures that the expertise will continue to be autonomous.
If the amendment is approved, the ASN and IRSN leadership will have to establish working groups, and conclusions are expected in June. While IRSN staff are on strike again on Monday, the ministry wants to reassure people about the attractiveness of their profession, including the salaries. With us, “salaries are between 20% and 40% lower than in an equivalent role in the private sector,” explains former IRSN Deputy Director General and young retiree Thierry Charles. “Given the vagueness, there is a risk of departures, towards Orano, EDF…” because the nuclear industry is recruiting and “weapons are missing”. According to him, what attracts IRSN researchers is “the general interest.” “The wages are lower than in other places, but the work makes sense,” he says. “Reorganizing everything is at least three to five years of chaos. And most of the accidents have been related to human factors,” he warns.
“In the long term, yes, another organization is probably possible, but in the next few years, many will have to work on it while the files of the new reactors and the expansion of the old ones are already on our desks. So much gray matter and resources do not dedicated to reviving nuclear power,” says Matthias Farges, a UNSP-FO delegate to ASN who fears a brain drain.
Source: BFM TV
