The meeting of the HCTISN (High Committee for Transparency and Information on Nuclear Safety) on March 28, 2024 was enlightening.
According to Jimmy Energy’s management heard at the meeting, an agreement in principle will be announced on April 22 with a food processing plant in the Grand Est region of France, for the construction of a 20-megawatt high-temperature nuclear reactor whose stated utility will be to supply carbon-free industrial heat. The mayors of the siting town and four neighboring towns have already been informed, and are respecting a confidentiality clause contrary to their basic obligations to inform the municipal councils and their citizens. According to Robin des Bois’ information, this pioneering industrial site is the Cristal Union/Cristanol complex at Bazancourt in the Marne department, which includes a sugar refinery and France’s largest bioethanol production plant. The Cristanol distillery is subject to the Seveso high threshold directive and co-produces animal feed and alcohols for the cosmetics industry.
Jimmy Energy’s managing director told a stunned HCTISN assembly that there was nothing to worry about. As far as security is concerned, “it’s a matter of producing hot water with neutrons bouncing around in a pot”. As far as safety is concerned, anyone can be totally reassured, since, he says, he did his military service with the GIGN (military special intervention unit), so safety is both a background and a priority for him. This inherently secure and “forgiving” nuclear reactor will be remotely monitored, and no dedicated staff will be committed to the site to monitor its operation. According to Jimmy Energy’s schedule, it should be operational after passing all technical and regulatory validations as early as 2026, followed by hundreds of other units.
The nuclear merchant served up other nonsense to the members of the High Committee, provoking embarrassed smiles and amazement, particularly in the field of waste management.
The head of the Department of the Senior Defense and Security Official at the Ministry of Ecological Transition stressed that precautions must be taken now to ensure that designers of “innovative projects” supported by the CEA (Atomic Energy Commission) who have access to classified defense information do not voluntarily or involuntarily spread it.
The head of the innovative reactor mission at the ASN (French nuclear safety authority) expressed his concern at the number and length of meetings devoted to technical, financial and regulatory dialogues with all the promoters of innovative nuclear reactors that sprang up like mushrooms just before or just after the “Belfort speech” by the French President on February 10, 2022, calling for a nuclear revolution and the launch of new stakeholders into orbit.
The government’s plan to merge the ASN and IRSN (Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety) is aimed solely at “streamlining” the nuclear revival, as the ministers and deputy ministers for the Economy and Energy are constantly repeating, and thus accelerating it. On the contrary, such a revival, if it is to be relevant and feasible, must not be hasty or collusive. The principles of impartiality, transparency and plurality of expertise would no longer apply if the merger between ASN and IRSN were to be definitively approved tomorrow April 9.
Previous press releases on the ASN/IRSN merger:
– Non à la fusion ASN /IRSN (No to the ASN /IRSN merger), December 21, 2023, including the Opinion of the college of associations of the (High Committee for Transparency and Information on Nuclear Safety on the “draft law on the organization of the governance of nuclear safety and radiation protection to meet the challenge of reviving the nuclear industry”.
– La fusion dangereuse du nucléaire (The dangerous fusion of nuclear power), March 11, 2024
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