The EDF nuclear power plant at Gravelines. Photo M. Libert / 20 Minutes – M.LIBERT / 20 MINUTES
Long-term procedure. On Monday, EDF was sentenced to fines by the court in Dunkirk, in the North, for breaches noted at the Gravelines nuclear power plant. This sanction is the culmination of a procedure launched in December 2019 by six associations of environmental defenders, we learned on Tuesday.
with Network exit nuclear.
The story began in 2016, when the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) noted the undeclared installation by the operator of the Gravelines plant of a wastewater discharge pipeline. EDF was then ordered by ASN to regularize the situation. But, at the end of 2017, the nuclear gendarme had discovered new shortcomings.
Penalties of fines of up to 4,000 euros
It is as a result that in 2018, several associations, including Network out of nuclear (RSN) and Virage energy, had filed a complaint against the electricity producer for “violations of the environmental code”. Except that the complaint was dismissed a year later. Suddenly, at the end of 2019, RSN filed a direct summons against EDF for the same facts before the Dunkirk court.
The procedure culminated in a hearing in mid-May 2021, and the court had reserved its decision. This fell on Monday and EDF was fined 4,000 euros for failing to “comply with ASN requirements” and “failure to comply with general storage or storage requirements for radioactive or dangerous substances. improper “. However, the court did not uphold the charge of discharging wastewater likely to pollute the environment.