Desired for more than a year by Emmanuel Macron to support the relaunch of the construction of nuclear power plants in France, the marriage between the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), the sector policeman, and the Institute of Radiation Protection and Safety nuclear power (IRSN), the technical expert, has become uncertain.
Tuesday evening, the deputies of the sustainable development committee gutted the bill, approved in February by the Senate.
They deleted by a narrow majority (23 votes for against 21) the first article which defines the missions and functions of the future Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority defended by the government.
It was necessary to recount the votes one by one, after a first estimate of the votes by show of hands gave an opposite result.
Also read: Nuclear safety: dosimeters, collateral victims of the ASN-IRSN merger?
Even if the government wishes to reinstate this article during the plenary session in the National Assembly, which will begin on March 11, this bill brings together opposition against it, including among the ranks of LR and RN deputies.
Faced with the risk of
"
dismantling the IRSN
"
, parliamentarians opposed to the bill recalled that the former presidents of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technical Choices (Opecst) fear that the reform will
"
paralyze safety
"
.
“Huge risk”
This is not the first time that the government has faced opposition from MPs.
Already, in March 2023, a first marriage project between ASN and IRSN had failed.
The government attempted this reform by adding an amendment to the energy bill, without organizing a debate, particularly with Opecst.
But the oppositions remain the same.
And the approximately 1,700 IRSN employees are not giving up.
Most of the troops will be reunited with the approximately 500 ASN agents, but some of them should be transferred to the Ministry of Defense and others will be assigned to the CEA (Atomic Energy and Energy Commission). alternatives).
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Last Tuesday, at the end of a sixth day of strike in fourteen months, IRSN union representatives stressed that this project creates
"
disorganization while the relaunch of nuclear power is already underway and the files are already on our
tables
.
According to them, the rush would pose
“
a huge risk to the safety
”
of the installations.
“Recruit a competent president”
The bill envisages the creation of the new entity on January 1, 2025. However, there is still a lot of work to complete the merger.
The grouping of all future personnel must be done under the aegis of an
“
independent administrative authority
”
, the current status of the ASN.
This choice was decided by the government to
“
make it possible to recruit a competent president of the control entity who could not be prosecuted in court ,
”
explains a person familiar with the matter.
But the disadvantage is that IRSN's commercial activities cannot be retained.
This is particularly the case for dosimeters (our Tuesday editions) which must be transferred to the CEA.
In addition, this legal status could pose difficulties in financing theses or participating in international research programs.
Faced with these risks, employee representatives worked with deputies to
“
propose fallback amendments ,
”
explains François Jeffroy, CFDT central union delegate of IRSN.
They suggest in particular the use of the status of an
“
independent public authority
”
.
But this would entail the risk that the corporate officer of this entity could be liable in court.
Read also Faced with nuclear risk, the Safety Authority is mobilizing to raise public awareness
The fact remains that the government is determined to complete its reform.
By an unfortunate coincidence of the calendar, the start of the plenary session at the National Assembly on the creation of the future control authority is scheduled for March 11, the thirteenth anniversary of the Fukushima accident.