The Fessenheim nuclear power plant was disconnected from the network on June 29, 2020. EDF immediately began pre-dismantling work. Despite this, presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is considering the reopening of this electricity production unit, if elected next Sunday.
This promise will not keep, have already decided the EDF engineers who, in Alsace, have been carrying out deconstruction work for almost two years. “It takes ten years of studies and work to allow the continued operation of 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 carry out a major fairing. To put it simply, we dismantle everything, we clean, we bring it up to standard. It’s a huge preparation. The last major fairing should have been anticipated as early as 2012, with a view to of the next ten-year inspection. It did not take place because the plant was already preparing for closure. Now, all the engineers say it: for us, in Fessenheim, it’s over.”tranche Anne Laszlo.
Pre-dismantling has consisted, for the past two years, of dismantling electromechanical components of the plant, recycling them and transferring them to other EDF sites. The two alternators, which correspond to each production phase and weigh more than 170 tonnes each, have already been recycled. One of them was partly reemployed 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 borated water that was used for cooling the reactors is being evacuated.
“We are on the eve of the final phase of non-possibility of restarting. 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 authorization to operate. It would take several years of study to achieve this. A restart would take the same time and have the same cost as the construction of a new plant”observes the chosen one.
On the site, the pace of life has already slowed down. The plant 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 of them. Those who remain are redirected to operational dismantling and deconstruction missions. Prefabricated tertiary buildings have become useless. They have been dismantled. The machine room, emptied, will serve as a shelter for the rest of the dismantling work. “We have completely reorganized the site so that the remaining employees are not scattered around the site”, explains Anne Laszlo. As if the plant had begun to withdraw into itself.
Entering production in 1977, Fessenheim has been the engine of the local economy for four decades. With more than 2,000 direct and indirect jobs, it has enabled this territory in the center of Alsace, halfway between the centers of attraction of Colmar and Mulhouse, to develop its wealth. The announcement of its closure by François Hollande in 2012 was experienced as a trauma. It was necessary to stop Fessenheim because it was the oldest power station in the EDF fleet, and to learn how to dismantle these units whose lifespan was estimated at around forty years. The second part then came out of a major overhaul which had mobilized 200 million euros of work. Today, Marine Le Pen’s campaign proposal rides on this frustration. “It is for ideological reasons that we closed Fessenheim”has continued to denounce the candidate of the National Rally.
Political recoveries
In central Alsace, the exploitation for political purposes of this closure has never ceased since the decision of François Hollande, which remained misunderstood by part of the population. “If we close Fessenheim, we will have made the grand slam of error”came to say Nicolas Sarkozy, president of the Republicans, in pre-campaign in May 2016 in the Alsatian power station. “To ridicule our engineers, to destroy the French nuclear sector, to no longer meet our commitments in terms of CO2 emissions and to become dependent on Germany, which operates coal-fired power stations that Europe no longer wants”had listed the former head of state, in front of a few dozen employees all committed to his argument.
Last November, Emmanuel Macron’s announcement of the relaunch of the atom once more made Alsace vibrate with a desire for a return to nuclear power. Frédéric Bierry, president (ex-LR) of the European Community of Alsace, merged department of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, declared himself “open to any discussion with the government to lead a reflection on a possible establishment in Alsace”. The announcement of the President of the Republic, too vague, has since been clarified. It is now a question of building six EPRs on three sites in mainland France. And it seems certain that Fessenheim will not be one of the sites selected. Perhaps sensing the awkwardness of his remarks, Frédéric Bierry never spoke of it once more.
The electoral proposal of Marine Le Pen does not bring a solution to the territory of Fessenheim, always in search of reconversion. Local authorities have agreed on the creation of a 220 hectare activity zone around the nuclear site, the dismantling of which will not be completed before 2040. The technocentre (150 jobs) envisaged by EDF to recycle its nuclear waste in Fessenheim has not been confirmed. The territory is still looking for a future between hydrogen, solar or industry.
