ARTE – TUESDAY MARCH 29 AT 8:50 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY
On February 2, the European Commission announced the creation of a “green” label for nuclear power plants, which do not emit CO2and recognized, subject to conditions, their contribution to the fight against climate change, while the Union is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
The news immediately provoked criticism from NGOs and anti-nuclear associations. It serves as the starting point for Ghislaine Buffard’s long documentary on the dangers of civilian nuclear power, whose stated objective is to obtain that its development be conditioned by a referendum.
Emmanuel Macron’s decision, at the end of 2021, to “relaunch the construction of reactors” constitutes for the director a danger in a country which is already the most nuclearized in the world, while, she points out, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Germany (May 31, 2011) have chosen to phase out nuclear power. At the time of the filming of this film, in 2019, neither Chancellor Angela Merkel nor Ghislaine Buffard could imagine that the war in Ukraine would reshuffle the cards.
Potential hazards
Asking whether civilian nuclear power is a solution for the future remains more topical than ever. The answer here is structured around the potential dangers: radioactive releases into the environment (tricium in the Loire), polluting and costly dismantling, hazardous waste for hundreds of thousands of years… And ” obviously “ disaster risks such as Chernobyl in 1986 or Fukushima in 2011.
The dismantling chapter is the most interesting. Several reports are devoted to it. Briefly in Fessenheim (Haut-Rhin), closed in 2020, and on the Chooz A site (Ardennes), pilot site for the dismantling of EDF power plants. More at length in Greifswald, the largest nuclear power plant in the former East Germany, whose reactors, of Soviet design, were shut down in 1995. Or in an experimental laboratory for the burial of waste more dangerous, 490 meters deep, in Bure (Meuse).
The use of slow motion and anxiety-provoking music sets the tone. Stakeholders are mostly opposed to nuclear power. “We must not be led to believe that there will be serious controls”, warns a member of the Criirad, an association founded in 1986 by the ecologist deputy Michèle Rivasi. Bernard Laponche, physicist and author, with Benjamin Dessus, fromEnd nuclear power (Seuil, 2011) questions: “Does the population accept that there is an accident on a power station of the Rhône or the Saône? » For him the question is political.
Since February 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Belgium has said it is ready to consider extending the life of its nuclear power plants, AFP reported on March 7, and Germany has declared itself decided to reconsider its exit from nuclear power and the lifespan of coal-fired power plants.
Nuclear: a solution for the planet, by Ghislaine Buffard, Fr., 2022, 90 min). art. Available until April 27