Nuclear: journey to the country of the convicts of the atom
LE MONDE | 09.04.2014 at 10:18 • updated the 10.04.2014 at 16:08 | Rémi Barroux

At the nuclear power plant Dampierre-en-Burly (Loiret) in 2013.

Gérard Teyssier knows the dirty jobs of nuclear power. Robust man in his fifties, follower of the cross-country race, this employee of the subcontracting including decontaminated soil with a machine machine, but hand, on all fours, wearing a Balaclava, a combination paper and a pair of vinyl gloves» often

Employed by expansion at the plant of Cruas (Ardèche), Gerard is one of the some 22,000 'small hands' of the atom, a near equivalent to the number of EDF officers assigned to nuclear. Without these "service providers" or "subcontractors", what EDF called 'collaborators', or 'partners' - what makes smile stakeholders-, nineteen French plants will not work. Without them, impossible also to consider the complete revision of the nuclear Park the project Grand fairing, with the modifications requested by the nuclear safety authority (ASN) after the catastrophe of Fukushima. This pharaonic program, estimated at 50 billion euros by 2025, will represent an increase of the activity of 70%.

"Great efforts to extend the life of nuclear power stations will increase the pressure, said Michel Lallier, representative of the CGT in the higher Committee for transparency and information on nuclear safety. As the constraints of time, because it is not possible to stop a power too long. Or recipients are not enough people to meet the expectations of EDF. This will force to hire, lower skill level and will increase the risk of accident. »

The direction of EDF, it is confident. "I have no doubt that we find the right people for these major projects, believes Dominique Minière, Managing Director production engineering to EDF. We are in phase of renewal of skills, in particular maintenance. As to announce zero accident tomorrow, it's impossible, but we should be able to progress. » Contractors of nuclear power, whether they are sized or very important, as Areva, Alstom, GDF Suez, Endel and boom, will they also need a renewed in the interim. "This division of labour remains an insoluble contradiction for EDF, which is obliged to appeal to providers and to expose people," judge Annie Thébaud-Mony, Director of research at the national Institute of health and medical research (Inserm).

Rarely hostile to nuclear power, and for good reason, these employees are all incurred hazards. «I started in 1995 as"bondage" - it was the expression-, it was all difficult tasks, tells Gérard Teyssier.» I released my first steam generator in 2000 at the Tricastin plant. Then I became pontier and I away from the dose. »

Dose: is the measuring tool of subcontractors of nuclear power, their standard to them. The dosimeter, they carry on them during interventions, records the level of radiation exposure. In the living room of his house in le Teil (Ardèche), on the banks of the Rhone, Gérard tells how he dived in the atom. Because his buddies who worked at the plant had "clean hands" and seemed to drink at the end of day, less tired than him, which manufactured concrete slabs. Because his company has closed, that he expected a child, that EDF hired and that, saying at the time recruiters, 'work in nuclear power, it is not more dangerous than watching TV.

Read: The nuclear industry is resistant to the impact of Fukushima

"BETWEEN US, IT WAS CALLED THE SAUSAGES TO GRILL.

Subcontractors perform three quarters of maintenance operations. Them the most exposure to the radiation risks, accidents sometimes hidden work, the pressure to reduce the duration of the yards, displacement of many thousands of kilometres per year for those so-called "nomads", but also the difference in status with the EDF, lived often as discriminatory, agents 'while we take the dose in their place', say more sorrows.
Jean-Jacques, age 59, subcontractor, working for AREVA for 43 years. He currently lives in a Père-sur-Loire camping. At the garden of Sully, he shared his caravan with his wife Christiane, Happy and Michael, their pets.


More vulnerable, more vulnerable and less protected. EDF statistics show: the frequency rate (the ratio between the number of accidents and the number of hours worked) was 4.2 in 2012 for providers, and 2.7 for agents of the State enterprise. Down at EDF between 2011 and 2012, this rate increased to subcontractors.

The divide is between those who provide "nuclear easements", renamed "logistics" by EDF, those who are responsible for the maintenance of sorting waste or decontamination of pools, between those who pose lead aprons to allow others to intervene by being better protected, and the more skilled work. This division translates tensions on the ground. "There no reason that should be 80% of the activity, taking 80% of the dose and that we do not have the same benefits as those of EDF", protest Charles Rumaux, 50 years, him also in growth.

In addition to the vexations of inequalities in status, as these corporate restaurants or these parking areas prohibited to subcontractors, misunderstanding of young agents EDF to come check a job that they do not know. «There is a lot of jealousy, frustration with us, recognizes Elisabeth Pozzi, EDF, head South-energy at Central of Dampierre-en-Burly (Loiret).» I've even seen graffiti "EDF cocksuckers" in the locker room. »

After being one of the first women in France to climb poles for the public company, Elisabeth Pozzi, 46, entered the steam generators to ask the "caps" - which block the pipes connecting the generator at reactor. 'Jumper', is the most exposed post. The operation should not last more than two minutes, both the irradiation is strong. "In 30 seconds, you take between 100 and 200 millirems. It trained many to not lose time and it cut the action to distribute the dose between us, she said. In two years, I had taken 250 millisieverts. Between us, it was called sausages to grill. »

When she announced that she wanted a child, the occupational physician put her Green of authority. "There is a good medical follow-up but this is not the case of subcontractors, insists Elisabeth Pozzi, who has now two big girls. If the maximum dose, let's work out area, in a workshop, and we keep our salary. Providers, if they stop, they return home and many have then nothing. » What can encourage them to cheat...

Does then go to titrate, as the number of December 2013 the monthly Terra eco, "the subcontractors of the atom thorn? José Andrade, responsible for labour in the sub-contractor SPIE-DEN and member of the Executive of the National Federation of mining and energy (FNME) of the CGT, do not think. "Should say"These subcontractors EDF cache for not knowing if they die". They are the ones who jump in the pot and are contaminated. EDF has outsourced the risk health and social. »

Result: with cancers, some die without that corporate responsibility can be established. "If, in fifteen years, I am told that I am suffering from cancer, against which company I send back me? Who will be responsible? », is moves Eric Barbier, who works for growth in the plant of Cruas. For twenty-seven years in nuclear power, it has changed several times business.

JUDICIAL BATTLES LONG AND STRESSFUL

Responsible for the association health subcontracting nuclear-chemistry, in Fécamp (Seine-Maritime), Philippe Billard, 48 years old, works in nuclear power since nearly thirty years, especially in the Norman Paluel and Penly plants. During his long career, he was jumper, decontamineur, maintenance engineer. It also was used by several companies, with market losses, mergers and acquisitions. "Each time, I was losing my seniority, my benefits, everything moved again from zero," he said. Everything except his health and the risk that increased. "It rubs shoulders with death for years but, when illness happens, that a person is contaminated, its record has been lost, its professional history is difficult to reconstruct and it becomes impossible to establish liability in its exposure to radiation from nuclear." Sometimes, even, the company says that it is an employee who is in the wrong, adds Philippe Billard.


Subsequent legal battles long and stressful. Rare, too, because they require significant resources towards those of the company. Each year, sixteen to twenty cases of illnesses related to exposure to radiation are recognized - stable figures for a decade, but that could increase with the advance in the age of employees. Eugénie Verronneau lost her husband on September 10, 2012. After thirty years in the nuclear, Christian, age 57, engineer Endel Enterprise (Group GDF Suez) to Central of Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube), died of a lung cancer due to exposure to ionizing radiation. If his illness was recognized as occupational in origin, Christian had no time to condemn his employer for "inexcusable". He died before.

"He loved his work, and when he learned that he had cancer, he still hoped to return to Central, said Ms. Verronneau. He always fought. In the end, he put all his energy to make its business pays it benefits to which he was entitled. "Eugénie Verronneau continues the battle and still does not understand why EDF, lead it is absent. "Same one jet the day of the funeral."

Each construction seems to be the opportunity of small cheating, of cover-ups of accidents by subcontractors. For example asked the employee wounded out of the area to go to a city doctor, so the accident at work is not accounted. «The pressure is very strong, tells Vincent, 31 years (he wished to remain anonymous), who is working on the pipes and pump in GADS changes, to the Dampierre power plant.» If you refuse to do what your head says, if you do not want to make weekend, for example, we send you do the tour de France. My boss told me: "You can change the tires of your car." This meant that he was going to send me on distant sites. »

Eric (still in business, its identity has been changed) is since 1996 in the nuclear and since 2004 for Central Belleville-sur-Loire (Cher) full-time, after being interim. He is a technician of radiation protection for the Kaefer Wanner specializes in scaffolding and decontamination. It manages the locker room in a controlled area. "There are related to lack of knowledge of the material, including radiation risk taken. The fire is also a major risk, he said. With pressure, many activities are available in parallel and control becomes impossible. When I take a poorly equipped colleague, he often sends me on roses. Many feel that there is too much red tape, too much lost time. »

A large on-site teams intersect. Trades are scrambling. Here welding, there were repainted or it disassembles in cramped rooms or corridors overrun by pipes. Need to save time, and the slightest delay involves waiting for other teams. «Different providers are stressed, and you explained Thomas Houdré, Director of the control of the nuclear plants of EDF to the ASN. They are then involved in degraded conditions that may have an impact on the quality of the work. "And on the safety of employees, insist the unionists.

Any delay is expensive and increases the risk. Before, a ten-year visit lasted four months, now we are trying to reduce. Stop for a simple reload of fuel, it is three weeks instead of one month. We do benefits not enough to revise, to control", says Jérôme Schmitt, 42 years, whose 16 to EDF, head South-energy Dampierre. And then, instead to save time, this acceleration results in delays, some poorly realized operations to be resumed.

IMPORTANT TURNOVER

Ten-year visit of the instalment No. 3, on four reactors of 900 MW of Dampierre, was to end late 2013. She was late. For this colossal project to EUR 300 million, 2,000 employees of subcontracting came at the peak of the work, strengthen 1 350 EDF agents. They are only 200 outside the period of construction. «We took technical operations behind as welding, with production defects, explains the Director of the plant, Elian Bossard.» On a site of this type, the activities are clocked and any delay blocks the rest of the operations. "According to him, there is room for possible improvement. "We must take better account of the comments made by our service providers and provide them with the adequate tools in protected area so that they are more effective."
JINO, age 57, subcontractor, working for AREVA. It came s install a week at Père-sur-Loire camping. At the garden of Sully, he shared his caravan with his wife Edwige and Diogot, their Chihuahua. JINO, age 57, subcontractor, working for AREVA. It came s install a week at Père-sur-Loire camping. At the garden of Sully, he shared his caravan with his wife Edwige and Diogot, their Chihuahua. | ADRIEN MANN FOR "THE WORLD"

To explain its use of subcontracting, EDF said that it is these companies who, for many, erected the nuclear Park. "We need expertise and rare, a specialized permanently on-site workforce and a significant logistics at construction sites," says Dominique Minière, the Managing Director production engineering. But we keep the industrial and technical mastery. "False, says Annie Thébaud-Mony of Inserm:"EDF has the arrogance to say they have mastered everything, while technicians who knew plants are to far away to retirement. "To cope with the influx of young people, Mr. Bossard, the Director of Dampierre, has invested 4.5 million euros in a school construction. Even though, he said, "the vast majority of errors are more related to habit and inexperience.

This lack of qualified employees is the result of an excessive turnover. "A third of employees of subcontracting left each year sector," says Yves Adelin, Member of the FNME-CGT. In my Central Paluel, in eight years, 60% of the staff has changed. "This rotation translates subcontractors often insufficiently trained and EDF loaded the control officers sometimes inexperienced. To the extent that the management of EDF is in the utmost discretion, charge the National Association for vocational training of adults to make proposals. The public company has already started to return to certain activities and decided to limit to three levels of subcontracting. The objective is to reduce the risks and avoid the serious accident that all fear. Remain the risk daily, almost banal, the fall and... the dose.

On the cooling of one Tower four reactors of 900 MW of the nuclear Cruas (Ardèche), 135 meters fresco painted by Jean-Marie Pierret in 1991, a young girl holding in his hand a conch shell filled with water, is visible from the highway that takes vacationers to the Mediterranean. It is she who shows the first minutes of the film by Rebecca Zlotowski, Grand Central (2013), which chronicles the life of subcontractors of the nuclear. "This is a fight against the dose, colourless, odourless, invisible, it is everywhere," launches the actor Olivier Gourmet in the new arriving interpreted by Tahar Rahim. Later in the film, one of the employees stash his dosimeter to be able to continue working. Strong image. Excessive?

For EDF and the ASN, the scene is a caricature. "There is no reason that an employee stash his dosimeter, says Dominique Minière, EDF." It would be too risky for him, who would lose his job, and his company, which would lose the market. "A misunderstanding shared by Thomas Houdré, of the ASN. "In 2013, there is not excess of the dose limits, and the maximum doses are less than 15 millisieverts, he said. While ten years ago we had several exceedances each year. »

These scenes of Grand Central, it was before, in the 1980s, argue the majority of those who, today, are in a controlled area. "It is true that this has changed after the Chernobyl disaster, explains Gérard Teyssier, an employee of expansion at the plant of Cruas. Before, there were the forts in mouth, who loved the risk, "rems meat", as they were called. »


For the trade unionist José Andrade, "what is forbidden, it is getting caught. Not an employee of subcontracting does not claim something crazy to stash his dosimeter. But all claim to have "seen doing". A confession at hints to evoke a practice still in force. «Sometimes, team leaders, when the construction is delayed and that we are in a place where it spits too, advise to remove the dosimeter and leave it away», says Marc, subcontractor on the site of Cruas. He prefers to remain anonymous: "Because the subcontractor laborer is invisible, as the dose," he adds.

Rémi Barroux
Journalist, Le Monde