EDF found out yesterday through the press that an "investigative book" was shortly due to be published, revealing a certain number of findings about the nuclear industry.
Most of the information set out in the article published in the Journal du Dimanche had been known about for a long time and had been openly shared with the nuclear regulatory authority and the general public.
However, the supposedly new facts are false (for example: the vessel-bottom penetrations, the list of vessels claimed as being "weakened by the same type of cracks as defects found in Belgium" or the way in which inspections were allegedly carried out in the past on vessels in the French nuclear fleet).
EDF has reiterated that nuclear safety is its overriding priority. The nuclear industry is the world’s most closely monitored industry and the company is fully aligned with all the requirements of the regulator, which performs over 400 inspections a year across the French nuclear fleet, both planned and unannounced.
Furthermore, EDF pours large sums of money into maintaining its facilities every year. Through its Grand Carénage (fleet refit) programme, about 4 billion Euros a year have been spent in recent years on the nuclear fleet, in order to constantly improve the level of nuclear safety.
As it does not have a copy of the book and has not yet reviewed it, EDF reserves the right, given the initial false allegations which are circulating, as well as interviews granted by one of the authors, to duly institute proceedings, including for libel.
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