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Vol 13 No. 2, May 2014

Exclusive:

Frances energy elite

Frances elite corps of technocrats is stubbornly clinging onto nuclear
power and restricting the growth of renewables in the country.

Cracks emerge in French elites

stranglehold on nuclear power
The power held by a core of unaccountable technocrats is under threat.
By Chris Eales and Richard Sverrisson news@montel.no

In France nuclear power is synonymous with the state. However,

behind the government lurks a secretive but highly powerful network
of technocrats drawn from the Corps dEtat, a uniquely French system.
Most prominent in strategy, developing and implementing energy
policy is the Corps des Mines.

and not democratic at all. They are the nuclear techno-bureaucratic

dictatorship in France.
France is a centralised country run by a very closed shop of elites
to whom nuclear is a religion, says Claude Turmes, vice-chair of the
Green group in the European Parliament.

So strong is the tie between state and nuclear as espoused by Corps

graduates, or X-Mines, as they are referred to, that to criticise nuclear
policy in France has been akin to an act of betrayal. Its like the flag,
says Bernard Laponche, a former French environment minister adviser.
You cannot be against the flag, you cannot be against nuclear.
Green campaigners and opponents of nuclear power see the Corps
des Mines as a dark, closed elite. They say Frances energy strategy
and key decisions are decided by unaccountable and publicity shy
engineers placed in key posts throughout the energy industry and in
ministries.
They are more powerful than the government, says Laponche,
member of Global Chance (NGO), former adviser to environment
minister Dominique Voynet in 1999, comparing the role of the Corps
des Mines to the English nobility in the Middle Ages. Its very feudal

It is a very strange system, says Mycle Schneider, an independent

nuclear consultant. It is similar to Opus Dei in the Catholic Church. A
lot of people think Opus Dei is a sect, but it is part of the hierarchy and
an official order. The Corps des Mines is an official part of the system
of the French state. It acts like an underground system.
The dominance of the Corps des Mines has also held back the
opening of Frances wholesale power market and strongly defended its
own national champions, say experts. The elites have slowed down
the development of liberalisation in France. Thats a fact, says Fabien
Roques, consultant at Compass Elexon.
Within Frances centralised, Jacobin structure, where all d
ecisions
flow from the core Paris the engineers became responsible for
attempting to transform the country from a dependence on oil to

Corps des Mines

in power
The technocratic elite of the Corps des Mines
have prominent positions on the boards of
Frances major energy firms, key nuclear power
related institutions, and ministries. All names
on the following pages are engineers from the
Corps des Mines in such positions, though the list
is nowhere near exhaustive.

a tomic power. Their heyday was in the centrally planned economies

of the 1970s and 1980s during a time when energy nuclear was a
given, and not a matter for political debate. Corps graduates played
a key role in the launch of Frances huge nuclear power programme
under the government of Pierre Messmer in 1974.
The programme, which saw the country build 80% of its current
nuclear fleet over just 10 years from 1977-1987, went ahead, in the
name of energy independence and national prestige, with no real
debate with a discussion in the lower house only taking place once
the programme had been launched, says Aurelien Evrard, lecturer in
political science at Paris-based Universit Sorbonne Nouvelle.
The ties between Frances elite and nuclear goes as far back as
Charles De Gaulle. Under De Gaulle, when Frances nuclear policy
was conceived, these elites were entrusted to carry out its programme
in this very French system, says MEP Turmes.
As well as holding key positions in industry, the X-Mines are also
prevalent in regulatory authorities, ministries and the office of the
prime minister and president. Currently, EDF is the only major French
energy company that does not have a Corps des Mines engineer on its
board of directors. However, it still contains a strong delegation who
manages the firms strategy, renewable energy deployement, power
production and tariffs. While the boards of Total and GDF Suez contain
several Corps des Mines, their CEOs are not engineers. The head of
Total is not X-Mines that would have been unthinkable 30 years ago,
says a graduate of the elite Corps, who wished to remain anonymous.
Proponents of nuclear energy argue that the core competency and
expertise of the engineers are essential for the French energy system.

24

Laurent Michel
Director general, energy and climate
Richard Lavergne
Adviser to the director general,
head of operations energy climate
strategy
Pierre-Marie Abadie
Director of energy
*Ministry of energy, environment
and sustainable development

Blaise Rapior
Adviser, energy,competition and
sectors policy
Christophe Attali
High Council for Economy, Industry,
Energy and Technology
Fabrice Dambrine
Head of innovation, competition
and modernisation, High Council
for Economy, Industry, Energy and
Technology
*Ministry of economy and finance

Pierre-Franck Chevet, the head of Frances nuclear safety authority

(ASN) and X-Mines says it is a special organisation dedicated to
technical, industrial challenges. There are a lot of engineers because
you need to talk about technical matters to try to be competent. So at
the end it is quite normal to find experts in such technical matters.
While X-Mines remain highly influential and hold many powerful
roles within industry and the French civil service, their stranglehold
on the nuclear behemoth may be waning.
Some experts argue that Frances nuclear marriage spanning 40
years and 58 reactors has soured and that the relationship is on the
rocks. It is no longer taboo in France to talk about cutting back the
use of nuclear power, says Arnaud Gossement, a Paris-based energy
lawyer. For the first time ever, he says, the Corps des Mines engineers
within the energy ministry have emerged from the shadows and talked
openly about closing reactors. Not just one plant, but 20 units.
Speaking at a lower house inquiry into nuclear costs in March
Laurent Michel, who heads the Energy Ministrys Department of
Energy and Climate and Pierre-Marie Abadie, who runs its energy
arm said there might be no need for 20 of Frances 58 reactors by
2025 under president Francois Hollandes plan to cut nuclear use to
50% of French power consumption by then.
Michel and Abadie, both X-Mines, said their calculations were
based on an only relatively moderate rise in power demand to 2025.
Theres no doubt that when important people like this speak in the
lower house, they weigh every word. So it is a declaration. And it
effectively illustrates a change in culture, says Gossement. In the
past we have been used to a [state] administration that blocks political
decisions. But this is not the case here.

MONTEL Magazine 22014

Stephane Dupre La Tour

Head of renewable energy and
energy access, strategy division
Francois Giger
Head of strategy , director of CO2
programme
Cecile Laugier
Director of SEPTEN, nuclear
engineering design department
Michel Matheu
Head of EU strategy, public affairs
division

Laurent Michel
Member of the board (French
government commissioner)
Didier Holleaux
CEO, E&P international
Bruno Bensasson
Member of the board
Isabelle Kocher
Executive vice-president, chief
financial officer
Raphael Schoentgen
President of GDF Suez, China

And there are those within the high echelons of the state who a ppear
to have decided that it is now acceptable to have a debate about nuclear
power. Nuclear energy must be the object of a debate in civil society,
says Francis-Rol Tanguy, who is currently energy advisEr to French
energy minister Segolene Royal, and member of rival elite Corps, the
Corps des Ponts et Chaussees.
There is no shame in that but all those who built nuclear power in
France, and its true that is a fairly extraordinary adventure, have a little
difficulty in accepting this change because up until now it was a subject
that was decided, well, elsewhere by an ensemble of technocrats, the
state, the milieu of research, the CEA (Commission of Atomic Energy),
there was a kind of delegation on this subject, he adds.
Indeed, Frances so-called energy transition debate, launched by
the Hollande presidency last year, is the first time in French history
that there has been a broad consultation on energy policy. In the past,
it was always top down, non-transparent, says Fabien Roques, senior
vice president at Compass Elexon, a consultancy firm.
If the doors of the elite are now opening to debate, this is because
technocrats are aware of the rising costs of generating nuclear power
and the possibilities of cheaper alternatives, experts argue. The meltdown at Japans Fukushima nuclear plant in March 2011 raised the
safety bar for French reactors and this combined with the costs of
keeping ageing reactors in service means the French administration
is conscious that nuclear will soon be very, horribly expensive, says
Gossement.
Indeed, some elements of the Corps des Mines are beginning
to see that offshore wind and large-scale solar are cheaper than new

MONTEL Magazine 22014

Luc Oursel
CEO
Philippe Knoche
COO, member of the board
Alain Bucaille
Adviser to the chairman, future of
energy and strategy

Thierry Desmarest
Honourary chairman, member
of strategy and governance
committees
Patrick Pouyann
President, refining & chemicals,
member of the executive committee
Bertrand Collomb
Member of the board

nuclear, says Claude Turmes. This view is shared by others in the

green energy sector. Renewables are now taken seriously by the
technocracy, says Jean-Louis Bal, chairman of Frances renewable
energy industry lobby SER.
Every day there is 250 MW of renewable capacity installed across
the world thats the equivalent of a European pressurised reactor
every week ... It is the global context that is changing the mentality on
renewable everywhere in Europe, he adds.
It is also a shock for the engineers that the (European power pressurised reactors being built) at [Finlands] Olkiluoto 3 and Flamanville
are so over budget, which explains the strike price achieved at the UKs
Hinkley Point reactor. The technology is not competitive anymore,
adds Turmes.
Others see it differently, arguing that cracks in French nuclear
policy are much closer to illusion than reality. Even if nuclear power
has become a subject of debate it does not follow that the mentality
of the policymaking elites has changed, says Evrard. Technical elites
do not need to keep decisions away from democratic debate they
influence the framework of that discussion.
There is a thin veneer of democracy, he adds, referring to recent
debates regarding renewables. There are debates that are organised,
such as the French parliament debate in 1999 and a national debate
in 2003. These are supposed to be collective discussions about energy
issues, but the core decisions are never taken in them.
He highlights the Grenelle de Lenvironment , a series of p
olitical
meetings on the environment held from 2007 to 2012, where d
iscussions
lasted over 2,000 hours and did not cover nuclear power. A decision
on concrete policy implementation, however, was taken elsewhere in

25

GDF Suez
AREVA

Total

EDF

PARI
French Presidential Palace

MINEF

Ministry of Economy
and Finance

MEDDE

Ministry of environment, sustainable

development and energy

Corps des Mines

Paris Mines Tech
graduate school
(X-MINES)

ASN

Nuclear Safety Authority

IRSN

Institute for Radiological

Protection and Nuclear Safety
26

MONTEL Magazine 22014

the elites, says Evrard. Once again the administration took back the
decisions from the people that participated in the d
ebates, he says. As
far as implementation of the core aspects of energy policy is concerned,
the administration decides and does so outside the debate.
And the technocrats still wield power with no change in
the administrations centralised way of thinking about energy
production, say critics of the system. This policy is still technocracy
led. The way of thinking that this is too complicated for people
has not changed, and the main actors are the same and the economic
context is even more difficult, adds Evrard.

IS
CEA

Nuclear Energy
Directorate

The modus operandi of the elite engineers is firmly entrenched in

the workings of the French state. The key aspect of the Corps is that it
does not function as an old boys network, but that the positions belong
to the Corps, says Schneider. When an X-mines leaves a position,
the ministers can chose from a selection of X-Mines CVs to replace
him/her, he adds. For instance, when X-Mines Anne Lauvergeon left
nuclear engineering firm Areva, she was replaced by Luc Ourson, who
was also a Corps des Mines engineer, says Schneider.
Similarly, when X-Mines Andre-Claude Lacoste finally departed
the ASN, he was replaced by Pierre-Franck Chevet, another X-Mines.
Thats the key to the system. It is to perpetuate a strategy beyond
electoral thinking or changes beyond that horizon, he says. The
dynasty must carry on even if it means assigning senior roles to
young engineers.
While many industry heads achieve lofty positions in middle age,
Corps des Mines engineers are offered senior roles at quite a tender
age. It is a problem that they are so young and they get into very
serious positions, says Schneider. This view is confirmed by an XMines. At the age of 22, you could talk to any plant manager you
wanted, he says, also questioning the suitability of the engineering
elite to run energy policy in the 21st century, where governments see
combating climate change and competitiveness equally important as
security of supply.
Why would members of the [elite] who were by far the best at
calculus at the age of 15 to 18, also be the best qualified to run energy
companies and even define energy policy? asks the anonymous
engineer.
The technocrats do not tolerate heresy against the nuclear religion.
During his time in the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) from 1962 to
1972, Bernard Laponche was also active in the CFDT union that spoke
out against nuclear. We had a position [in the union] against nuclear
and the head of the CEA at the time, was furious because we were
speaking to the press, when he said this was an internal discussion
and not for members of parliament, or journalists.
Members of this corps are under huge pressure not to deviate from
its policy, or even leave it, says Turmes. Individuals would risk their
career if they broke out from the nuclear religion as they would not
find an equivalent position or the same social recognition.
Indeed, president Hollandes aim to cut nuclear use to 50% of
demand implies a policy of closing 20 reactors and challenges the
traditional way of thinking in the Energy Ministry. Their readiness to
reach this target then comes into doubt, says Evrard.

MONTEL Magazine 22014

27

Dominique Maillard
CEO
Claire Niclot
Director, innovation and RTE and
EDF
Vincent Thouvenin
Executive director of SENP (power
system unit)

Daniel Bouche
Director of research
Jean Cazalet
Deputy director for development
and nuclear innovation, nuclear
Energy department
Eric Goubault
Research director
*Nuclear energy directorate

For X-Mines Vincent Le Biez, who is national secretary of Frances

UMP opposition party the fundamental problem with Hollandes
nuclear power policy is the goal of cutting to 50%. It makes no sense.
Its strange to say we have to close more or less plants depending
on the consumption in 2025. We are not going to close plants that are
perfectly safe and profitable for the pleasure of closing them, he adds.

Pierre-Franck Chevet
President
Jean-Jacques Dumont
Commissioner
Sophie Mourlon
Deputy director general
Thomas Houdre
Director, nuclear power plants
*Nuclear safety authority

Patricia de Suzzoni
Adviser to the chairman
*Energy regulator

The country is unlikely to follow Germany in transforming its

e nergy system, at least in the short to medium term. The rapid growth
of de-centralised renewables as has occurred in Germany is not
possible in France, says Roques of Compass Elexon. The Germans
have gone in for self-investment its been a bottom-up development,
such as rooftop photovoltaic panels. In addition, the Green party has
played a much larger role in shaping the publics mind [in Germany].

The recent comments by X-Mines Energy Ministry civil servants

in the lower house, says Le Biez, are simply a response to Hollandes
50% aim , which has become a symbolic figure due to a pre-electoral
agreement with the Green party.
As a result we are forced to try and interpret this figure and to
say what this might represent. I dont think that spontaneously the
administration would suggest this kind of reasoning. I am not sure
you can interpret this as a change in mentality. What has changed
is that there is now a consensus among the technocracy that the
reactors, whatever their expected running lives, cannot all be closed
at the same time, he says.

The energy transition in France is anything but a transition,

says Evrard. He points to Denmark and Germany, where citizens
co-operatives and local communities have built renewables.

Renewables growth there has been decentralised but most importantly,

decisions have been reached more openly, he says.
Evrard again highlights the role played by the elites in thwarting
change. The key areas between the two countries are the differences
between the institutional frameworks. In Germany, renewable
legislation in 2000 and 2004 was led through parliament, he says,
adding that such an outcome would be unfeasible in France.

This has to be done gradually over time, otherwise it will cost far too
much, but, according to Le Biez, there is no urgency to address this
issue now. He also bats away the idea economic constraints and n
uclear
accidents are provoking a rethink of power policy in F
rance. There was
a doubt among Corps des Mines engineers after Fukushima but this
has lifted because of the situation in Germany where the exit from
nuclear power use has left the countrys c ommercial balance in great
difficulty, according to Le Biez.
We must be very careful about altering Frances energy policy. I
think this is a majority view among engineers in the administration.
France has put so much into nuclear that it would be a very heavy
economic choice.

France will obviously not be able to copy Germany, says Francois

Leveque, professor of economics at Mines Pairs Tech. It is not possible
to close all 58 nuclear reactors in France.
Proponents of nuclear power argue that replacing only some plants
with renewables will be prohibitively costly. The energy transition will
increase electricity costs as much as 70% by 2025 for large firms and
therefore hurt companies ability to compete globally, says Colette
Lewiner of Cap Gemini.
Investments needed from now to 2020 are forecast to be between
EUR 350-415bn, she says, adding half of which are grid investments.
Lewiner cites a 2011 study by Alfred Voss of Stuttgart University, who
estimated the energy transition cost for Germans at more than EUR

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MONTEL Magazine 22014

The hidden French

energy elite

2,000bn, an amount comparable to that spent on German re-unification.

Cutting the share of nuclear power in French consumption to 50%
by 2025 will cost EUR 592bn, Lewiner estimates.
There are signs that the Corps des Mines is changing. There
is a difference between the younger and older generation, says
Gossement. Today many young X-Mines work in wind power and
solar companies.
Others share this view of transition to a new renewables-savvy
vanguard. The younger X-Mines can see the new reality but the older
ones are digging in, says Turmes.
France will see change, but it may take five or 10 years, says
Roques, stressing that the direction is there. The renewables lobby
agrees. The global context is changing the mentality on renewables
everywhere in Europe. Its not going to be a brutal change in France
its linked to the (nuclear) culture, says SERs Jean-Louis Bal.
France may yet be able to lessen its dependence on nuclear power,
but this requires a massive change in mentality in the elites and for
the old guard to step down or relinquish their grasp on the technology
of a bygone age, say experts.
In France nothing will change unless the Corps des Mines changes
or the 200-year old, outdated Corps dEtat system is finally abolished,
says Schneider, adding that the elites are beginning to engage with
scenarios that illustrate that something drastic has to happen. In the
end, you cant keep saying the energy earth is flat, says Turmes.
Montel asked Jean-Louis Beffa, X- Mines, chairman of the
association of Corps des Mines engineers to contribute to this article.
He declined. Marie-Solange Tissier, joint director of Paris Mines Tech,
responsible for the formation of the Corps des Mines, did not return
phone calls. n

MONTEL Magazine 22014

In many countries, the governing and industrial

elites are formed of lawyers, doctors or
graduates of the most prestigious universities.
However, in France these positions are held by
engineers from the Corps des Mines.
The institution, attached to the ministry of
economy and industry, recruits the top dozen
graduates from Frances Polytechniques and
other prestigious schools, including the countrys
Grandes Ecoles. They are classed 1- 10 according to their grades, says a former teacher at the
Corps. They are considered not only as the elite
but the elite of the elite.
Once in the Corps des Mines, they actually
no longer do any science, the teacher adds.
They study administration, technology and
engineering business, he says, adding that the
students move very rapidly completely out of the
science domain.
They have two years of what amounts to
an internship. There are no courses of any kind.
They spend a few months in industrial internship, and they do that two or three times and
then they are engineer des mines and they are
appointed administrative positions.
They gain promotion very quickly, and often
assume large responsibilities at a young age.
The Corps engineers are granted a job
for life, either in prominent leadership or
advisory positions in global French giants such
as EDF, GDF Suez, Total and Areva and/or in
most g
overnment ministeries. There are 800
members, but only about 500 are active.
The Corps des Mines has a long h
istory,
and was established in 1810. In terms of
energy p
olicy, it rose to prominence when the
government of De Gaulle entrusted the elites to
carry out its nuclear programme, which has been
seamless for the past 40 years. Only now are
cracks in this technocratic closed shop beginning
to emerge.

29