Setback for the government: the National Assembly rejected this Wednesday, March 15 in first reading the controversial reform of nuclear safety, some voices of the majority joining the left to oppose the “dismantling” of the Institute dedicated to safety (IRSN).
The executive would like to found the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), a technical expert, within the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), the policeman of the power stations.
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But the deputies approved by a show of hands an amendment by Benjamin Saint-Huile, of the independent group Liot, to preserve a « organisation duale » between the Institute and the Safety Authority, unraveling the whole of this sensitive article of the nuclear revival bill.
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However, the subject is not closed. The government can still resort to a second deliberation. And the debates on the rest of the bill were extended until Friday evening at the Palais Bourbon, before a solemn vote on Tuesday March 21, decided in the evening the conference of presidents, which brings together the leaders of the political groups and the principal officials of the Assembly. The parliamentary shuttle will then continue.
“We proposed to the Senate, given the importance of the subject, to have a second reading”warned the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
IRSN employees are cautious. “I’m very happy, but I’m wary of my joy because it’s not won yet. The government must hear this rejection”, underlines François Jeffroy, representative of the inter-union. On Monday, during a third day of strike, hundreds of IRSN employees marched near the Assembly, with slogans like “IRSN dismantled, nuclear safety sold off”.
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“Precipitation”
In the hemicycle, the left protested against the “precipitation” of a reform “hussar”a “dangerous proposition” according to ecologist and former minister Delphine Batho. It’s a “dismantling in order. We need this independence of research, within IRSN”insisted the Insoumise Aurélie Trouvé.
A few majority voices, including former minister Barbara Pompili (Renaissance), also stepped up. “Without any impact study”, “It’s madness to throw it at us like that”she launched. ” I am shocked “.
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Agnès Pannier-Runacher answered her directly by addressing her as familiar: “You know perfectly well that this reform and this questioning were already underway a few months ago”. Et “there is no change, at any time, of any line of our nuclear safety procedures”she hammered.
Macronist rapporteur Maud Bregeon also pointed out that after the possible merger, “the decision and the expertise within the ASN will continue to be disjointed exactly as they are today”.
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The MoDem, divided on the subject, wanted to propose a compromise amendment with a parliamentary monitoring committee for the reform.
Les LR, “a little surprised on the form”look rather favorably on the merger, “guarantee of efficiency” pour “streamline procedures”according to MP Jérôme Nury. “The sky will not fall on nuclear safety”he reassures.
“Not opposed in principle”the RN had mentioned an abstention in estimating the subject “unsuccessful”.
A dual system created in the early 2000s
The disappearance of the IRSN was decided during a “nuclear policy council” around Emmanuel Macron on February 3. It was announced on February 8 and then introduced by a simple amendment adopted in committee at the Assembly.
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Objective : “streamlining ASN’s review and decision-making processes to respond to the growing volume of activities linked to the relaunch of the sector”.
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This merger did not appear in the text, during the broad adoption in the Senate of the nuclear stimulus bill at the end of January.
This dual ASN/IRSN system was created in the early 2000s. At IRSN and its 1,800 engineers, doctors, geologists, etc., safety expertise and research. At the ASN and its 500 agents, the decision, fed by the expertise of the IRSN, for example when a defect is observed on a plant or that a site must be authorized.
