Nuclear safety reform has passed the final hurdle. The executive’s controversial project was definitively adopted on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday by a final favorable vote from the Senate. It mainly provides for the merger of the nuclear policeman, ASN, with the technical expert in the sector, IRSN.
According to critics of the text, it risks causing a “disorganization” of the system and casting doubt on the independence of the decisions of the future single entity.
Creation of a new authority to “streamline”
This bill provides for the creation in 2025 of a Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority (ASNR), resulting from the merger of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) and the Institute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) , which employ approximately 530 and 1,740 agents respectively.
The government believes that the end of a dual system will make it possible to “fluidize” the sector by reducing the time required for expertise and authorization of installations.
Risk of loss of independence and transparency
Opponents, however, warn of a possible loss of independence of experts and transparency. The project, which is opposed by a number of elected officials, engineers and associations, has also provoked the ire of the unions of the two entities.
In the streets for an eighth time on Tuesday, IRSN employees called on deputies to oppose it. “IRSN dismantled, safety in danger”, “forced marriage, accident assured”, we read on the signs in the procession.
Change of cap
An amendment adopted at the end of the parliamentary shuttle also provides “for each file” a distinction between the staff responsible for expertise and those responsible for a decision, one of the most discussed points.
But, laments socialist MP Anna Pic, “the same agent could intervene as an expert on a file one week, then take the role of decision-maker the following week on another”. “I have never seen an expert capable of making decisions and I very much doubt the ability of a decision-maker to develop in-depth expertise,” worried Senator Raphaël Daubet (Radical Left Party). “Changing hats like this seems dangerous to me.”