Five years ago in Alsace, the first reactor of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant stopped turning. We then talked about the end of an era … until the War in Ukraine And awareness of ecological emergency rebuild the cards. Between energy sovereignty, limited resources and influence issues, challenges around the nuclear are in size. In this first episode, Anne Rosencher, delegated director of management, and Sébastien Julian, deputy editor of the L’Express climate service, tell us the story of a political sabotage.
Episode 1: The gravediggers of Fessenheim
To start this series, let’s go back 44 years. The Fessenheim nuclear power plant, located in Alsace on the Franco-German border, has been running for three years now. On June 7, 1981, it was at the heart of a mobilization. That day, German and French environmental activists want to unite their strength. Under a great sun, songs and slogans follow one another.
In t-shirts with short-colored sleeve, the demonstrators flock their bike to protest. But the Germans find themselves blocked, forbidden to pass on the other side of the border. Regardless, the French join their wrestling comrades. The police forces then find themselves surrounded by two platoons of anti-nuclear cyclists.
The dams end up being opened. Germans and French meet and continue to pedal together, against Fessenheim. This is not the first time that this nuclear power plant has been targeted. A big walk was organized in 1971, activists made the hunger strike in 1977… It is not the last time either that Fesnenheim made the headlines: in 2014, Greenpeace activists enter the power station to denounce the lack of security.
Let’s go back in 2025. We are five years after the first reactor was stopped, on the two that Fessenheim owns. And a continuous question to hover over this old power plant: was it really necessary to close it? Even today, Fessenheim, and the whole nuclear question, continues to crystallize tensions
Fessenheim was the oldest French nuclear power plant in activity when she stopped turning. Anne Rosencher, delegated director of the editorial staff, investigated the reasons for her closure.
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“The atomic challenges” is an original series of the magnifying glass, the daily podcast of L’Express, presented by Charlotte Baris, written by Solène Alifat and produced by Jules Krot.
Credits : BFM TV, Europe 1, France 24, France 3, INA, Le Monde, TF1
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