The Constitutional Council on Wednesday validated most of the nuclear revival law, but censored the tougher penalties for intrusions into power plants, deemed unrelated to the substance of the text. LFI deputies and environmentalists, fierce opponents of the atom, had seized the Constitutional Council to challenge the bill, widely adopted in mid-May. The Sages deem constitutional the main lines of this text which aims to facilitate the construction of new EPR reactors by 2035. “The technical heart of the text which will allow the acceleration” of nuclear power is “entirely preserved”, rejoiced Macronist MP Maud Bregeon, rapporteur for the law.
The Constitutional Council, however, “censored for all or part ten articles of the law referred as legislative riders”, that is to say without connection to the substance of the bill, he said in a press release. It thus removes the hardening of the sanctions for intrusion into the power stations, a measure to which the Senate, with a majority on the right, 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 anti-nuclear NGOs. EELV MP Julie Laernoes welcomed the censorship of this article, which she sees as a threat to “whistleblowers” with “disproportionate penalties”.
Another fiercely debated subject, the Council censored a request for a report on “the human and financial needs of the Nuclear Safety Authority and the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety”, just like an article which wanted to allow the Nuclear Safety Authority to recruit contract agents. The government remains in favor of a reform of nuclear safety, with a merger of the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), a technical expert, within the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), the policeman of the power stations. Rejected in the Assembly, the reform was ultimately not included in the nuclear revival bill. But the executive has not given up and expects by mid-July the recommendations of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices, seized of the question by the Senate.
“Disappointment” for environmentalists, the Constitutional Council validated the article which removes the 50% cap on nuclear energy in the French electricity mix by 2035. Despite protests on the left, parliamentarians had voted to lift of this “lock” introduced in 2015 under the presidency of François Hollande. “The Constitutional Council has censured at the margin some provisions of the nuclear acceleration law but gives a blank check to the government to relaunch the construction of new reactors”, denounced the anti-nuclear NGO Greenpeace.
