R.A.S. Nucléaire rien à signaler

This horrific tale starts from the 1986 Chernobyl tragedy when hundreds of volunteer “liquidators” intervened courageously immediately after the accident to consolidate the site, so as to avoid a chain reaction, and were knowingly exposed to vast amounts of radioactivity. Today, in times when perhaps the nuclear debate generates considerably less fuss than it did in the eighties, cineast Alain de Halleux asks himself (and us) the following question: what would happen now with such “liquidators” if an accident was to happen? In Europe, and especially in France, he interviews the “ordinary workers” of nuclear power stations whose commitment and interventions guarantee the safety of the population in a wide surrounding areas. His enquiry reveals a disastrous situation. Having been set-up by large international groups, the stations now sacrifice their security measures to profitability.The security staff charged with verifying the installations are told to stamp their reports with a R.A.S. (“rien à signaler”: nothing to report), under the threat of loosing their jobs. Evidently, strikes and protests do nothing to help the situation.
R.A.S. NUCLEAIRE RIEN A SIGNALER reveals a disastrous situation by interviewing those who descend directly into the heart of the reactor in a sort of nuclear spacesuit at the peril of their health rather than the directors of the power stations. For, like many of us, they once believed in the democratic promise of the nuclear industry: electricity that is accessible to all.
Visions du Réel Nyon 2009