ABSTRACT
The history of nuclear safety in France is characterized by a sort of “organizational internalization of risks”, that is, a risk management process maintained within the organizations involved in nuclear power.”40 After World War II, nuclear safety and control policies, in large part imported, were developed within France’s Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the body responsible for promoting nuclear energy. The 1970s were marked by the implementation of an ambitious nuclear power program based on pressurized water technology imported from the United States and entrusted to France’s state-owned electric utility Electricité de France (EDF). This led to the creation of an administrative authority in charge of controlling nuclear facilities. This authority drew on the expertise of the CEA, which retained its safety analysis capacity. The nuclear safety institutions thus established were ones of “technical dialogue” and “French cooking”. The Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979 did not put a halt to the vast program to build nuclear power plants. One of the solutions used to cope with the trauma caused by the accident can be summed up in two words: human factors. In France, a team of human factors experts was formed within the CEA’s assessment institute.41
