The Constitutional Council censures the toughening of sentences in the event of intrusion into a nuclear power plant

The Constitutional Council validated, on Wednesday June 21, most of the nuclear revival bill, but censored the toughening of penalties in the event of intrusions into power plants, which it deemed unrelated to the substance of the text. .

The rebellious deputies and environmentalists, fierce opponents of the atom, had seized the Constitutional Council to challenge the bill, widely adopted in mid-May. The Elders consider the main lines of this text to be constitutional, which aims to speed up procedures in order to facilitate the construction of new EPR reactors by 2035.

“Criminalization of environmental action”

However, the Constitutional Council has “censured in whole or in part ten articles of the law referred as legislative riders”, that is to say unrelated to the substance of the bill, he said in a press release. He thus censures the hardening of the sanctions for intrusion into the power stations, a measure to which the Senate was keen. The sentence was to be increased to one to two years in prison and a fine of 15,000 to 30,000 euros. It had given rise to a lively debate with the left, which denounced a “criminalization of environmental action”.

Another fiercely debated subject, the Council censured a request for a report onr “the human and financial needs of the Nuclear Safety Authority and the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety”, just like an article that wanted to allow the Nuclear Safety Authority to recruit contract agents.