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Nuclear safety in France: IRSN sounds the alarm

IRSN's Board of Directors is sounding the alarm about the risks of abolishing the institute in a government reorganization project. The unions fear for nuclear safety in the event of the departure of staff and for France's capacity for expertise in this field.

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The Board of Directors of the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) voted on Thursday for a motion warning of the risk of “paralysis” of nuclear safety that would be posed by the abolition of the institute planned in a government reorganization project. According to the inter-union of the institute, the motion was voted by a very large majority (18 votes for, 4 against, 2 abstentions). The unions fear the end of the “dual” structure of the French safety system (ASN/IRSN), and some see it as a way of bringing the institute into line. They also fear that the research branch of IRSN, which provided expertise, will be transferred to the CEA.

 

The government wants to abolish the IRSN

On February 8, the government announced its intention to abolish the IRSN, a watchdog and expert on radiological risk, in order to “make the examination process more fluid”. The experts and scientists would join the teams of the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) and the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).

 

A “diaspora” of IRSN experts

A “diaspora” of IRSN experts “would have the consequence of depriving France of its research and expertise capacity at a crucial time marked by the challenges of extending the life of existing reactors and the creation of new generation reactors,” the motion emphasizes. The Board of Directors also reminds the government in this motion of the role of IRSN in “the protection of workers, the population and the environment against ionizing radiation with a broad spectrum, crisis management and post-accident situations, and the uses of radioactivity in the industrial, medical and military fields”.

The unions intend to share their fears with the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who is due to meet with them late Friday. On Monday, they plan to come back a little more numerous, in order to demonstrate under the windows of the ministry, with the employees on strike that day.

 

A first recognition

If this motion has a “symbolic significance”, with regard to the composition of the Board of Directors, “it means that representatives of the State have voted for this resolution”, according to the inter-union, which sees it as “a first recognition of what we defend”.

 

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