This photo taken on March 30, 2013, shows the Bugey’s nuclear plant in Saint Vulbas, central-eastern France.

 

DPA/Reuters/Paris

 

Anti-nuclear groups expressed alarm yesterday at revelations that drones flew over seven French nuclear power plants in October in a development that has sparked fresh debate about nuclear safety.

State electricity company EDF, which operates the plants, confirmed that “aircraft resembling drones” had been spotted over seven of them since October 5.

One of the plants is currently being decommissioned.

Environmental group Greenpeace claimed that “at least 10” nuclear sites nationwide had been targeted by the drones, including the country’s oldest nuclear plant at Fessenheim, on the border with Germany, and the administrative headquarters of the Atomic Energy Commission near Paris.

The EDF denied any drone sightings over Fessenheim.

“Fessenheim was not overflown,” a spokesperson told DPA yesterday.

It is not known who was behind the flights.

However, suspicion immediately fell on the anti-nuclear lobby, which has staged several stunts to highlight nuclear security.

Greenpeace, which has carried out several break-ins at nuclear plants in recent years to raise awareness of nuclear safety, denied any hand in the incidents, which it called “very worrisome”.

“In all its actions, Greenpeace operates openly and takes responsibility for its actions,” the group said, calling for an investigation into the security of the airspace around nuclear plants.

The EDF said that it had notified the authorities and filed a criminal complaint against persons unknown for the illegal entry of airspace above a nuclear facility after each incident.

Aircraft are banned from flying within a 5km radius and 1,000m altitude over a nuclear plant.

Questioned about the incidents on France Info, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve vowed the authorities had “ways of neutralising these drones”.

Cazeneuve would not be drawn into saying who might be behind the flights, saying that the investigation was continuing.

The EDF downplayed the significance of the airspace breaches, saying they had “no impact on the safe functioning of the plants”.

The company did not speak to the broader issue of security, including the threat of terrorist attacks.

The Observatoire du Nucleaire, a French anti-nuclear group, said that the “campaign proves that, with modern technologies like drones, people with bad intentions can easily obtain crucial information on the exact configuration of nuclear plants, in order to possibly carry out real attacks”.

While the EDF did report each drone sighting in brief on the websites of the affected power plants, the utility did not issue any general statement on the overflights, meaning the incidents went largely unnoticed by the media and public until Wednesday.

The EDF named the plants over which drones had been spotted as Creys-Malville and Bugey in the southeast, Blayais in the southwest, Cattenom and Chooz in the northeast, Gravelines in the north and Nogent-sur-Seine, the closest plant to Paris.

The unmanned aircraft were spotted late in the evening, at night or very early in the morning, the EDF said.

France has 58 reactors providing three-quarters of the country’s power.

President Francois Hollande has vowed to try reduce the atomic share in the energy mix to 50% by 2025.