Listening to the neighbours

The Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant was built on the river Rhine at the border between France and Germany and 25 km from Switzerland. It is the first PWR plant built in France. Operation started in 1977 after some very strong opposition from both sides of the Rhine during the building years. The plant belongs to EDF, the French national Electricity Company, which has been facing, for a couple of years, the opening of the market. 780 people work in Fessenheim, and they have often been described as remote and quite isolated behind their iron gates, not only by the members of the regional community, but also by their colleagues who also work for EDF, but in other activities (commercial, hydraulic plants, distribution ... . In this context, for the Fessenheim plant management, it was urgent to find a way to open not only executives or managers to their community and the other EDF units, but all employees whatever the position or the activity. In the year 2000, they took the opportunity of EDF President Francois Roussely calling all staff to think about new ways of benefiting to launch the operation 'Fessenheim a l'ecoute de son environnement' ('Fessenheim listens to its community'). (author)