Pierre-Marie Abadie, familiar with energy issues, is proposed by the government to lead the future nuclear safety authority, with the delicate task of organizing it following a hotly contested reform.
President Emmanuel Macron plans to appoint Pierre-Marie Abadie, on the Prime Minister’s recommendation, the Élysée Palace announced on Monday.
Currently the director general of the National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (Andra), Mr. Abadie would first head the current Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) and also undertake a mission to prefigure the future Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority (ASNR). This new authority, replacing the ASN, is set to be established on January 1, 2025, with Mr. Abadie as its leader.
The Speaker of the National Assembly and the President of the Senate have been informed of this nomination project, with relevant committees from both chambers expected to deliberate, according to the presidency.
Mr. Abadie would succeed Bernard Doroszczuk if appointed as president of the ASN, whose non-renewable term ends on November 12.
Until then, he will lead the preparatory work for the future ASNR, resulting from the contested merger between the ASN, the nuclear power plant watchdog, and the IRSN, the sector’s expert institute. Both entities were established in the early 2000s following lessons learned from the Chernobyl accident.
For this mission, the ASN assured on Monday that he will work “alongside Mr. Doroszczuk.”
The Élysée decided to create the ASNR in January 2025, and Parliament approved this decision in early April after over a year of opposition from unions, experts, and associations. They enacted the law, aimed at “streamlining” decisions to revive nuclear energy, on May 22.
While a future internal regulation will define the reorganization details, the CGT-CFDT-CFE CGC union coalition of the IRSN called for the “swift appointment” of a “prefigurator” who is sufficiently “neutral” to “arbitrate disagreements” on various issues between the IRSN and the ASN.
The internal regulation will need to establish “the modalities of distinction” between agents responsible for dossier evaluation and those making the final decision, as stipulated by the law. This distinction is considered crucial for safety by experts in the field.
“During the legislative work on the merger of the ASN and IRSN, I committed to appointing a prefigurator quickly. Following the law’s enactment last week, this has now been accomplished with the designation of Pierre-Marie Abadie,” stated Industry Minister Roland Lescure on Monday.
Since October 2014, Mr. Abadie has led Andra, notably advancing Cigeo, a project for the deep geological disposal of the most radioactive waste from the French nuclear fleet.
This controversial project is under testing and research in an underground laboratory in Bure, Meuse. The formal application for creation was submitted to the ASN in January 2023, which will conduct an extensive review over several years.
François Jeffroy, CFDT representative, expressed the union coalition’s “lack of understanding” regarding this apparent “conflict of interest” on Monday.
However, he acknowledged the positive aspect of appointing a prefigurator who is not from the ASN and has not previously been involved in this reform. “We hope he will enable us to start working in a climate of listening,” he added.
A general engineer of Mines, Mr. Abadie previously spent seven years as the director of energy at the Directorate General for Energy and Climate (DGEC) within the Ministry of Ecology.
His career also includes roles at the Ministry of Defense as an industrial affairs advisor and at the Directorate General of the Treasury.