“Major accidents have each time pushed back the limits of what had until then been considered plausible scenarios.
In a report entitled "Anticipation and resilience, ten years after Fukushima", the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) recognizes that the disaster in Japan has shaken the foundations of the nuclear industry.
And obliged countries dependent on the atom, like France, to review the security model of their power plants.
“The accident leads us to think about the sizing of the installations with regard to external events and more particularly to the combinations of natural aggressions”, underlines the IRSN.
Of course, the 56 French reactors are not exposed like Japan to the risk of major tsunamis.
“But the flooding of the Blayais power station, following the storm of 1999, was linked to an accumulation of phenomena that had not been anticipated,” recalls Karine Herviou, deputy director general in charge of safety at IRSN.
The very violent winds and the surge of the sea had led to part of the plant's protective dike being leveled and the access road to the site flooded.
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Maintenance that leaves much to be desired
In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, EDF therefore had to review its copy.
"We have secured all the exterior equipment to protect them in the event that there are projectiles during a storm and installed low walls with a sort of drawbridges at the entrance to the reactor buildings so that the water does not infiltrate if there is a flood ”, explains one at the head office of the company.
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To keep the installations in water, in order to cool the reactors, the electrical supplies were secured by emergency diesel.
Installed in “immense cathedrals” placed on earthquake-resistant pads, these emergency generators are protected by reinforced concrete walls, capable of withstanding a projectile equivalent to a car projected at 100 km / h.
This is not enough to reassure the Sortir du nuclear association which considers that "the maintenance of the installations leaves much to be desired, leading to an increasing number of incidents".
However, EDF firmly believes in the future of the atom and wishes to build several new EPR reactors in the future on the model of the one in Flamanville (Manche), which nevertheless multiplies the delays and technical problems.
Getting out of nuclear power speaks of a "suicidal headlong rush".
"These projects ignore the climate changes in progress, such as the risk of submersion for sites by the sea, which will only increase", underlines the association.
Unpredictable weather phenomena
Aware that its power plants can suddenly find themselves weakened by extreme weather phenomena, EDF believes it has found the solution by creating a rapid action force, staffed with 300 people.
Presented as a sort of “nuclear GIGN”, this unit, equipped with helicopters, trucks and robots, is constantly training to manage “emergency situations”.
“They can set up a command post, even in impassable terrain,” said a spokesperson for the company.
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However, can this elite commando prepare for disaster scenarios deemed implausible a priori?
Prosecuted in 2019 for "negligence resulting in death", three former executives of Tepco, the company managing the Fukushima plant, defended themselves by considering that it was "impossible to predict such an accident".
