The Fessenheim nuclear power plant was disconnected from the grid on June 29, 2020. EDF immediately started the pre-dismantling work. Despite this, presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is considering reopening this power-generating unit, if elected next Sunday.
This promise will not be fulfilled, the EDF engineers have already decided, who have been carrying out deconstruction work in Alsace for almost two years. “It takes ten years of study and work to continue operating a nuclear power plant in France”recalls Anne Laszlo, CFE Energies Delegate in Fessenheim and Federal Delegate for Europe. “Every ten years we have to have a big fairing done. Simply put, we dismantle everything, we clean, we bring it up to standard. It is a huge preparation. The last big fairing should have been expected already in 2012. , with the in view of the next ten-year inspection, which did not take place because the factory was already preparing for closure. Now all the engineers are saying: for us, in Fessenheim, it is over.”paste Anne Laszlo.
For the past two years, the previous decommissioning consisted of dismantling the electromechanical parts of the installation, recycling them and transferring them to other EDF sites. The two alternators, which correspond to each production stage and weigh more than 170 tons each, have already been recycled. One of them was partly back in service at the Gravelines nuclear power plant in the north. Other parts, smaller or too old to be reused, were sent to the Electropolis Electricity Museum in Mulhouse. The fuel has been removed. The borate water used to cool the reactors is discharged.
“We are on the brink of the final phase of impossibility to restart. The circuits have been washed, the engine room dismantled”confirms Raphaël Schellenberger, deputy (LR) of Haut-Rhin, defender until the last moment of nuclear activity in Fessenheim. “In France, it is the Nuclear Safety Authority that issues the permit to operate. It would take several years of study to achieve this. A restart would take the same time and cost as building a new factory”observes the chosen one.
The pace of life has already slowed down on the site. The factory had 735 employees at the end of production in June 2020. Half of the employees left, redeployed by EDF to other sites and other activities. In 2023 there will be only 80. Those that remain will be sent to operational decommissioning and deconstruction missions. Prefabricated tertiary buildings have become useless. They have been dismantled. The emptied engine room will serve as a shelter for the rest of the decommissioning work. “We have completely reorganized the site so that the other employees are not scattered around the site”, explains Anne Laszlo. As if the plant had begun to withdraw into itself.
Fessenheim, which went into production in 1977, has been the engine of the local economy for four decades. With more than 2,000 direct and indirect jobs, it has allowed this area in the center of Alsace, halfway between the attractions of Colmar and Mulhouse, to develop its wealth. The announcement of the closure by François Hollande in 2012 was experienced as a trauma. It was necessary to stop Fessenheim because it was the oldest power plant in the EDF fleet, and to learn how to dismantle these units, whose lifespan was estimated at about forty years. The second part then arose from a major overhaul that had mobilized 200 million euros in work. Today, Marine Le Pen’s campaign proposal is based on this frustration. “It is for ideological reasons that we closed Fessenheim”has continued to denounce the National Rally candidate.
political recovery
In the center of Alsace, the exploitation for political purposes of this closure has never stopped since the decision of François Hollande, which was misunderstood by part of the population. “If we close Fessenheim, we will have made the grand slam of error”said Nicolas Sarkozy, president of the Republicans, during the pre-campaign in May 2016 at the Alsatian power plant. “Making rid of our engineers, destroying France’s nuclear sector, failing to meet our CO2 emissions commitments and becoming dependent on Germany, which operates coal-fired power stations that Europe no longer wants”the former head of state had noted, in front of several dozen collaborators, all of whom were committed to his speech.
Last November, Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of the atomic relaunch made Alsace tremble again with desire for a return to nuclear energy. Frédéric Bierry, President (ex-LR) of the European Community of Alsace, merged department of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, stated “open to any discussion with the government to initiate a reflection on a possible settlement in Alsace”† The announcement of the President of the Republic, too vague, has since been clarified. The aim now is to build six EPDs at three locations on mainland France. And it seems certain that Fessenheim will not be one of the selected locations. Perhaps Frédéric Bierry sensed the awkwardness of his remarks, but he never spoke of them again.
Marine Le Pen’s election proposal does not bring a solution to the territory of Fessenheim, always seeking reconversion. The local authorities have agreed on the creation of a 220-hectare activity zone around the nuclear site, the decommissioning of which will not be completed before 2040. The techno center (150 jobs) that EDF envisions to recycle its nuclear waste in Fessenheim has not been confirmed. The area is still looking for a future between hydrogen, solar or industry.
