Fessenheim (France) (AFP)
The shutdown of the first of the two reactors of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant, on the night of Friday to Saturday, is a victory for the anti-nuclear but a heresy for the employees and the inhabitants of the small commune of Haut-Rhin, which does do not understand this decision.
Opposed to the closure of this first reactor, before the shutdown of the second on June 30, some employees threatened to disobey and not to apply the procedures allowing its shutdown and the decoupling of the national electricity network.
But everything ended up going smoothly.
"The reactor was disconnected around 02:00 in the morning and we must salute the remarkable work of the teams, it was a very emotional moment in the control room", we said on the side of EDF. "The procedure went without any problem".
This process was similar to a maintenance shutdown, except that this time the reactor will not be restarted, to the chagrin of employees and residents of the region, very attached to the plant, which generated almost 2,000 direct, indirect and induced.
Emu, Jean-Luc Cardoso, a trade unionist and long-time employee, spoke on behalf of the employees Saturday morning during a public meeting with the elected officials of the community of communes, in front of the central. He thanked them for their support.
"Our colleagues had to perform acts for which we are not programmed," he regretted. "There will be a 10-year air gap (before the opening of the technocentre called to replace the power plant, note), it leaves you speechless!".
- "Climate vandalism" -
Saturday morning, forty elected members of the community council also posed with their scarves and red caps at a press conference. Gérard Hug, its president, explained that it was a way of "reclaiming a symbol of a struggle which, at another time, at the other end of France, made the government back down". A reference to the movement of red caps in Brittany, which had pushed the government back on the eco-tax.
The mayor of Fessenheim Claude Brender has once again denounced the upcoming closure of the plant. He demanded that the state not abandon this watered territory for 40 years by the taxes paid by EDF and he fears the departure of hundreds of families with comfortable incomes: "As of tomorrow, we will begin to feel the effects of the closure from the power plant, with population departures ".
The elected officials will be followed in the afternoon in front of the plant by pro-nuclear associations which want to "protest against this act of climate and environmental vandalism".
For their part, the anti-nuclear companies are satisfied with this first step towards the closure of the plant that they have been hoping for for years.
In Colmar, a few tens of kilometers from the power plant, the anti-nuclear forces of the Stop Fessenheim association hung a banner on Saturday in the square in front of the station on which is written "Long live Alsace ... nuclear free!" .
"The shutdown of this dying plant is a reason for cross-border celebration, but not a reason for triumph", the radioactive fuel remaining present for several years on the spot, had commented the German environmental association Bund, which has opposed for years at this power plant, and even more since the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
- Years of turmoil -
The Minister of Ecological Transition Elisabeth Borne confirmed Friday the will of the State to create in Fessenheim "a center of excellence for nuclear dismantling, based on a + Technocentre + for the recycling of metallic materials".
"EDF employees will all be reclassified in other EDF sites," said Emmanuelle Wargon, secretary of state to the Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition on Saturday morning on France Info. "Around 750 employees are concerned today. They will all have a proposal for redeployment at EDF. Some will not wish to leave, for family reasons, which we can quite understand. They will be accompanied to find a job in the employment area of Fessenheim, or Colmar, or Mulhouse. About 350 subcontractors (are concerned): they are supported one by one, about 160 interviews have already taken place. A solution will be found for each of between them."
The reactor shutdown operation puts an end to years of turmoil, debates and reports on the fate of the Alsatian power plant, commissioned in 1977, on the border with Germany, not far from Switzerland .
The evacuation of the fuel from the plant will, according to the planned schedule, be completed in 2023. Then must continue the phase of preparation for decommissioning, a process unprecedented in France on the scale of an entire plant which should start on the horizon. 2025 and continue at least until 2040.
© 2020 AFP