Hundreds of employees of the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) demonstrated in Paris on Tuesday against the government's plan to dismantle their institute, receiving the support of opposition deputies, Barbara Pompili, Renaissance deputy, and even EDF employees.
With the slogans "Before acting, you have to think" or "forced marriage = threatened security", around 700 employees (800 according to the CGT), out of the 1,700 in the Institute, had gathered near the National Assembly to oppose the plan to merge the powers of IRSN with those of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), which issues authorizations to operate power plants, or of the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).
Wishing above all to preserve their independence vis-à-vis the ASN, the nuclear watchdog, as well as the transparency of the publication of their technical opinions on the state of the French power plants managed by EDF, the demonstrators deemed the project announced on February 8.
They asked MPs to vote against the amendments tabled by the government to the nuclear acceleration bill, which are to be discussed in the Economic Affairs Committee on 6 and 7 March.
Several elected officials came to support them, some of whom are opposed on the nuclear political level, but united on the need for strong nuclear safety, in particular the national secretary of EELV Marine Tondelier and the communist deputy for Seine-Maritime Sébastien Jumel .
The chairman of the Finance Commission, the rebellious Eric Coquerel, said that he was "totally and frontally" opposed to this "aberrant" merger project. “There will never be enough nuclear safety,” he said.
Renaissance MP Barbara Pompili, Minister for the Ecological Transition of the Castex government from 2020 to 2021, was also present: "In the name of what, when something works well, should it be deleted?", She wondered in grandstand.
She criticized the lack of preparation of the text, released abruptly during the February school holidays. "I will not be made to vote on a text without an impact study, especially if it talks about nuclear safety," she said. The member of the presidential party also told AFP to feel "discomfort" within the majority on the subject.
The former LREM deputy, then Generation Ecology, the mathematician Cédric Villani, also supported the demonstrators, most of them engineers, technicians or researchers.
"What enlightened me to understand why the government wanted to abolish IRSN is the text published by Bernard Accoyer" the former president of the National Assembly who heads a pro-nuclear lobbying association Nuclear Heritage and Climate , underlined François Jeffroy, central trade union representative of the CFDT.
The note released by Mr. Accoyer, a copy of which AFP obtained, accuses IRSN of "drifts" and "misrepresentation" of its role, the institute making "public some of its analyzes in response to referrals from ASN ".
"It is important that the ASN has the confidentiality of the data until its decision is given, which does not prevent the publication of the opinions of each other after the fact", he said to the AFP.
The publication of IRSN opinions has been made possible since 2016 and an order issued by Segolène Royal, then Minister of the Environment and Energy.
"Mr. Accoyer says aloud what others cannot say too much: the opinions of the IRSN bother us, if the IRSN is in the ASN there will be no more publicity, and the problems will be solved “, summed up the CFDT manager.
Supposed beneficiary of the operation: EDF summoned to accelerate its production of nuclear electricity to increase the income of the group in financial difficulty.
Without directly mentioning the IRSN, the CEO of EDF Luc Rémont, heard by the National Assembly on Tuesday, moreover estimated that the nuclear acceleration bill, which carries the two amendments removing the IRSN, "brings a good state of mind and a certain number of solutions on the acceleration of procedures" to restart production.
Several EDF employees nevertheless took part in the demonstration. "To have more nuclear safety, you simply have to hire more people instead of transferring them"; declared Virginie Neumayer who works in radiation protection at the EDF Tricastin plant.
02/28/2023 20:34:07 - Paris (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
