“Finally some good news”, rejoice the unions

“Finally some good news”, rejoices at the franceinfo microphone Maxence François, CGT general secretary of the Flamanville nuclear site, while the Nuclear Safety Authority gave the green light, Tuesday, May 7, to the commissioning of the Flamanville EPR (Manche) . The commissioning of this new generation reactor was initially planned for 2012, but numerous problems encountered in its construction caused significant delays on the schedule. Maxence François explains that after 12 years of delay, “the agents finally see the end of the tunnel”.

Vincent Rossi, who arrived in 2009 as a technician, remembers the “discourages and setbacks” met. He says he lived “relatively complicated times” upon learning of construction delays. Today CGT delegate to the EPR, Vincent Rossi is very happy to finally witness this future start. “It was a childhood dream to operate a nuclear power plant and start a new reactor,” he greets. If he is impatient to witness this commissioning, he judges “important” of “work safely”.

“Have a safe installation”

To do this, the EDF teams prepared extensively for commissioning. “We did our training, our dry runs and the loading machine was tested,” explains Christophe Barbot, CFE-Unsa delegate at the Flamanville EPR. He thus assures that all that has been “learned”, will be put “in application to produce and have a safe installation“. The CGT still calls on management to exercise caution and vigilance. Its union representative, Maxence François, hopes that this commissioning “happens peacefully and in good social conditions”, that’s to say “with human and material resources” And “above all, without pressure”. “Be careful to take the time to carry out the technical actions correctly, so that there is no pressure from management to absolutely be on the network this summer,” he adds.