The project was adopted Tuesday by 402 votes against 130.
A breath of fresh air for the government, after the turbulence caused by the pension reform. The National Assembly largely adopted, with the support of LR, RN and Communists, Tuesday, March 21 at first reading, the nuclear revival bill. The project was thus approved by 402 deputies against 130. However, the text was amputated from the controversial security reform.
> > Revival of the nuclear sector: what the bill provides
Supported by a very large majority in the Senate at the end of January, the text must continue its parliamentary course with a compromise between deputies and senators in a joint committee or during a second reading. Technical, this bill reduces the procedures and the deadlines to concretize the promises of Emmanuel Macron to build six new EPR reactors by 2035, and to launch studies for eight others. It is limited to new installations located on or near existing nuclear sites.
A text approved by the RN and LR
For “achieve carbon neutrality”you don’t have to “no longer have shameful nuclear power”according to the slogan of the Macronist deputies, like the rapporteur Maud Bregeon, former EDF, who scrapped against EELV and the Insoumis, favorable to the exit from the atom and the transition to 100% renewable from 2045.
“What are the risks worth”THE “tons of waste?”for its part retorted the LFI Anne Stambach-Terrenoir, before insisting on the crack “important” recently revealed in the piping of a reactor at the Penly power plant (Seine-Maritime). The Socialist Group also voted against, even though it “does not belong to the anti-nuclear political formations”said Marie-Noëlle Battistel.
For its part, the National Rally voted for the text, “although insufficientby attacking “stubborn environmentalists”. The boss of the deputies Les Républicains Olivier Marleix rented a “hoped-for political turnaround” by the right. But “a lot of questions” stay “outstanding”he warns, on the use of electricity, technologies and “new nuclear actors”.
Failure on security reform
During the debates, the government was defeated on its security reform project, which was the subject of strong criticism even in its camp. The executive would like to found the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), a technical expert, within the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), the policeman of the power stations. But MPs voted to preserve “dual organization” current.
The government does not intend to disarm and could put the subject back on the table during the continuation of the parliamentary shuttle. “It’s a match in several sets and we won the first set”warns François Jeffroy, representative of the IRSN inter-union, who has already organized several days of strikes and remains “mobilized”.