She stopped producing energy in 1985, after only eighteen years of exercise. In Brennilis, in the heart of the wild Monts d’Arrée (Finistère), the nuclear power station is part of the scenery. In this rural corner known to be the Breton Himalayas, the concrete dome nestled by the lake can be seen everywhere, even surrounded by dense vegetation. It was here that the State had decided to install what was to be a showcase of French nuclear know-how. Its prototype of a carbon dioxide-cooled heavy water reactor was unconvincing and the technology was abandoned. Stopped in 1985, the site and its 70 megawatt reactor saw their dismantling start in the 1990s. At the time, we promised a “return to grass” in twenty years, for a budget of 42 million euros . Thirty years later, the reactor block is still there to store the most dangerous radioactive material. Consequence: the announced cost of dismantling has soared to 850 million euros … If all goes well.
Every day, around 80 EDF employees work around the nuclear power plant. Since 2018, the engineers of the French group have been hanged at the decision of the Nuclear Safety Authority, which is studying the 3,000 pages of its file. This Monday, an important phase of this process was started with the opening of the public inquiry dealing with the final phase of decommissioning. A one-and-a-half-month consultation on the intervention around the reactor enclosure and its annex buildings aimed at “informing the public” and “collecting their assessments, suggestions and counter-proposals”. For this, it will take a good part of the 2,500 pages of the report presenting the way in which this extraordinary project will be carried out.
“A complete failure”, according to environmentalists
To complete the dismantling of Brennilis, EDF plans to send robots to the “red zone” which will be responsible for cutting the thick vessel of radioactive metal and storing it in thick containers. The material will then be evacuated to the National Agency for the Management of Radioactive Waste located in the Aube. A site that worries local opponents, who fear to see hazardous materials cross France. Environmentalists from the regional council judge this site as “a complete failure, whether in terms of time, cost and releases into the environment”. Elected officials take the opportunity to recall their opposition to nuclear energy, however praised by Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex to meet the climate challenges of tomorrow. Environmentalists criticize “a form of stubbornness on the part of the government to want to continue developing this energy from the past.”
Often criticized for the slowness of its work, the management of the Brennilis power plant is taking refuge behind the issue of safety. “We had planned for 10 years of work. But I am not afraid to announce that it will be 17 years old. This project has never been carried out elsewhere in the world. We know that we are being observed, but we are not going to be criticized for being careful ”, explained its director Jean Cucciniello during our visit to the site last year. The most optimistic track foresees an end of construction in 2039. That is to say fifty-four years after the closure of the plant. “Don’t tell me that nuclear power costs less. This project shows how irrational it is, ”likes to remind Bernadette Lallouet, fierce opponent of nuclear power installed in the Monts d’Arrée.