With the slogans "Before acting, you have to think" or "forced marriage = threatened security", around 700 employees (800 according to the CGT), out of the 1,700 in the Institute, had gathered near the National Assembly to oppose the plan to merge the competences of the Institute with those of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), which issues power plant operating licences.

Wanting above all to preserve their independence vis-à-vis this nuclear policeman, as well as the transparency of the publication of their technical opinions on the state of French power plants, the demonstrators considered the project announced on February 8 unjustified.

They asked MPs to vote against the amendments tabled by the government to the bill on the acceleration of nuclear power, which are to be discussed in the Economic Affairs Committee on March 6 or 7.

They received the support of several elected officials, in particular that of the national secretary of EELV Marine Tondelier and the communist deputy of Seine-Maritime Sébastien Jumel.

The chairman of the Finance Commission, the rebellious Eric Coquerel, went up to the podium to say that he was "totally and frontally" opposed to this "aberrant" merger project.

"There will never be enough nuclear safety," he said, "once you break down a tool like this, you don't easily rebuild it."

Renaissance MP Barbara Pompili, Minister for the Ecological Transition of the Castex government from 2020 to 2021, was also present: "In the name of what, when something works well, should it be deleted?", She wondered in grandstand.

She criticized the lack of preparation of the text, released abruptly during the February school holidays.

"I will not be made to vote on a text without an impact study, especially if it talks about nuclear safety," she said.

The member of the presidential party also told AFP to feel "discomfort" within the majority on the subject.

"There was never any questioning of the excellent work of IRSN and ASN while I was rapporteur for the parliamentary commission of inquiry on nuclear safety and security", she declared.

The former LREM deputy, then Generation Ecology, the mathematician Cédric Villani, also came to support the demonstrators, mostly engineers, technicians or researchers.

In France, "nuclear safety is what works best in the whole nuclear landscape", he said.

© 2023 AFP