the Elysée relaunches the controversial merger project between ASN and IRSN

It is a particularly controversial project. The Élysée has decided to relaunch the project to merge theInstitute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) and the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN). The announcement was made on Wednesday July 19 during a Nuclear Policy Council. The measure had been rejected in April by parliament, but Emmanuel Macron therefore decided to put it back on the table.

This merger must be included in a specific bill, scheduled for the fall. Objective, according to the executive: to simplify the organization and streamline the sector to revive it. As a reminder, in February 2022, Emmanuel Macron indicated that he wanted the construction of six to fourteen new generation nuclear reactors by 2050.

Strikes this winter within IRSN and ASN

To achieve this merger of IRSN and ASN, there is no question for the government of retrying an express unification, as in the spring. The executive intends instead to use a parliamentary report made last week and which is favorable to the creation of a single entity.

But the same causes producing the same effects, Emmanuel Macron is likely to come up against the opposition of the employees of these two structures. Last winter, strikes were organized within the IRSN and the ASN to contest the merger project. Even the mathematician and former Macronist MP Cédric Villani had stepped up to torpedo the text. So the Ministry of Ecological Transition is trying to reassure and promises to keep all of IRSN’s missions, with increased human and financial resources for the future independent authority.

But that does not reassure some nuclear experts and some parliamentarians. According to them, this new structure would be both judge and party. They are also concerned about the independence of the opinions given on nuclear safety, about the transparency and about the quality of the assessments.

What are the impacts of such a merger?

The employees of the two entities also fear the disappearance of certain activities. These are all questions that the parliamentary report does not answer, according to François Jéfroy, CFDT central delegate and representative of the IRSN inter-union: “No diagnosis, no impact study. For us, this report completely leaves aside the question of the advisability and feasibility of this merger. We produce expertise for nuclear installations relating to national defense. The OPECST report says very clearly that this expertise activity could not be entrusted to an independent administrative authority, because it concerns sovereign interests. What is the consequence? We are embarking on a path of reform whose impacts we do not know. “

The intersyndicale does not rule out calling a strike again to denounce this merger project.