A second EDF executive has asked to be named as a civil party in the investigation led by a judge in Marseille into suspicions of obstacles to the control of nuclear safety inspectors at the plant
of Tricastin (Drôme), we learned Friday from his lawyer.
According to a copy of his application for civil party, “it appears indisputable that the managers of this plant have” in July 2018 “done everything to obstruct the work of inspection” of this 51-year-old man, then an engineer in the internal inspection department of EDF since 2015 and who goes by the name Victor in the press to remain anonymous.
According to his lawyer, Etienne Noël, his civil action was sent at the beginning of September to the judge in Marseille.
When questioned by AFP, neither the Marseille public prosecutor’s office nor EDF wished to comment on this information.
In an email to AFP, EDF was however keen to “formally deny the accusations made against it and the management of the Tricastin power plant, concerning an alleged policy of concealment of events, the generalized non-compliance with procedures and the existence of intimidation towards the independent safety network”.
Today on sick leave after several suicide attempts, according to his lawyer, Victor also asserts in this document that he was the victim of “moral harassment” by an executive of the plant “and this at the express request of the management of the plant”.
This executive of the power plant, now aged about forty, is the man whose complaint in 2021 against EDF denouncing a “policy of concealment” of the company in terms of nuclear safety, had led to the opening of an investigation against X in Marseille. He is called Hugo
in the media to keep his anonymity.
The judicial information retains in particular “the endangerment of the life of others” and “obstacles to the control of the inspectors of the nuclear safety”.
According to the new constitution of civil party, the director of the power station at the time and Hugo “did everything to push” the inspector “to the limit and to make him lose his temper”.
According to the same source, Hugo said that the management of the plant had reported to their hierarchy their desire to have Victor excluded from this audit because his previous inspection in 2015 had displeased.
“Behind, there was the issue of the authorization of 10 years (of operation ed.) additional” of the plant, assured Victor to AFP. The inspection he was conducting was “bound to have indirect and
potentially an impact (…) on the extension,” he said.
The Tricastin power plant is one of the oldest in France. In 2015, according to the civil party’s constitution, a sentence by Victor referring to a “lack of professionalism of the driving teams” of the
reactor had been removed from its report by the management of Tricastin “in total violation of the rules laid down internally”.
