nuclear-news

Outgoing French nuclear safety chief warns of 25% budget cut

(Montel) France’s ASN nuclear safety authority faces a 25% cut to its budget next year which would leave the body “unable to operate”, its outgoing head, Bernard Doroszczuk, has told parliamentarians.

by: Muriel Boselli, 25 Sep 2024

The same would apply when ASN plans to merge with its technical arm, the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), to create a new body ASNR from 2025, he told a French lower house committee on Tuesday.

“Whether it’s the ASNR or the separate ASN and IRSN, we don’t have the means to operate with these figures,” he said.

The planned cuts, due to be tabled in the government’s finance bill next month, would leave a EUR 37m hole in ASN’s EUR 150m budget, Doroszczuk said, adding this was “very alarming”.

Merger on 1 January?
President Emmanuel Macron proposed the head of the nation’s nuclear waste agency Pierre-Marie Abadie to succeed Doroszczuk when his term ends on 12 November.

One of Abadie’s first tasks will be to oversee the controversial merging of the ASN and the IRSN from 1 January 2025 as approved by parliament and officially stipulated as law on 22 May.

Despite legislative delays following France’s snap election, the launch of ASNR could go ahead on 1 January as planned even if “it won’t be perfect”, Doroszczuk said.

It would be a “transitional” entity at first, with only 30 reconfigured positions out of more than 2,000. The general management will be unified, but the entities responsible for nuclear safety and radiation protection within ASN and IRSN will remain unchanged.

September 28, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, safety