From the Lost Land of Blayais to the Emirate of Saint-Vulbas: The Territories of Dependency to Nuclear Energy in France

In midst of energy transition, the reduction of the share of nuclear power in the French electricity mix announced by president Francois Hollande after his election in 2012 rises a trans-partisan opposition both at the national and the local level. In France, the territories which host a nuclear power plant, municipalities and inter-communalities, enriched themselves quantitatively and qualitatively thanks to the financial benefits and to the strategies of EDF. Little by little, these improvements forged a relation of dependency between the infrastructures and their communities. Facing a potential vanishing of their resources, they structured themselves as actors of the conflict in a context of strong politicization of the NPP's workers, as today's debate surrounding the future of Fessenheim plants epitomizes it. The presence in France of territories of dependency to atomic power, which are politically active, slows down the partial deconstruction of the electronuclear park that a modification of the national energy mix would require