“Additional investigation” looks at a gray area of our power plants: radioactive waste. What about the infinite recycling that the atomic industry has been promoting for fifty years? How did Putin’s Russia get involved in this recycling circuit? How can we explain that in La Hague, the spent fuel “pools” are today 97% full? What has become of French nuclear power, once a national pride?
Port of Dunkirk, November 2022, 4 a.m. A Russian cargo ship approaches the dock, scrutinized through binoculars by three Greenpeace activists “tipped” by an informant. On board, several dozen barrels of reprocessed uranium re-enriched by the Russians… spent fuel that EDF sent to Russia and which returns to France to power a nuclear power plant. Discreetly and in the middle of the Ukrainian war…
At a time when Emmanuel Macron has made the relaunch of nuclear power the major project of his second five-year term, “Additional investigation” looks at one of the gray areas of our dear power plants: radioactive waste. What about this myth of infinite recycling that the atomic industry has been promoting for fifty years?
The ASN “black scenario”
How did Putin’s Russia interfere in the recycling circuit of our nuclear waste? How can we explain that in La Hague, the famous spent fuel “swimming pools” are today 97% full? In the event of saturation, the power plants would have to be shut down and electricity production stopped… A dark scenario from the Nuclear Safety Authority which is worrying everyone.
Redacted reports, hoax operations, have Orano (formerly Areva) and EDF done everything to cover up their delay? So what has become of French nuclear power, once a national pride? “Further investigation” into this nuclear waste which embarrasses us.
An investigation by Nathalie Sapena, Justine Weyl and Mikael Bozo.
Direction Tahiti for red armchairs: with Hinamoeura Cross, representative of Tāvini to the Assembly of French Polynesia, Tristan Waleckx will talk about French nuclear tests in the Pacific and their long-hidden consequences on the health of Polynesians.
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Among our sources
– THE EDF centralized swimming pool project.
– THE IRSN report which was “decayed” following a procedure before the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (CADA).
– Andra’s 2022 inventory of nuclear waste, updated every five years.
– THE press release from Rosatom at the time of signing the contract with EDF in 2018 (in English).
– There resolution of MEPs calling for sanctions against nuclear power, and a ban on the export and storage abroad of reprocessed uranium.
– The hearing of Bernard Doroszczuk before the Senate on April 7, 2021, who criticizes nuclear operators because of their lack of anticipation regarding the construction of a new swimming pool (from 12’40).
– THE ASN press release which warns about keeping reprocessed uranium without the prospect of reuse within a reasonable time frame – 30 years.
Non-exhaustive list.