Côte-d'Or: Access to private nuclear archives, "a question of democracy"

What was the challenge of this day dedicated to private nuclear archives?

"The nuclear issue revolves around a notion of secrecy. It's even one of the most secretive activities. But what this day demonstrated is that, despite everything, there are a huge number of archival productions coming from associations, activists, and very diverse sources, depending on the region and the type of nuclear site. The objective of this day is therefore to bring together historians, social science specialists, and archivists to reflect on how we can construct a history of nuclear power that is not solely dependent on the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission), EDF, or the government. Because it's a question of democracy, of allowing all citizens to have access to information on such a sensitive subject."

This issue goes beyond the borders of Côte-d'Or...

"Yes, of course. But this initiative in Dijon is linked to the fact that work is currently being carried out in conjunction with the CEA Valduc . From this, we wanted to broaden the question, in order to determine the type of archives we have and what are the possibilities of accessing these archives. All this in a context where nuclear power has returned to the heart of the news, on the civil and military level, in view of the global geopolitical situation . It is an extremely sensitive question, which researchers must address. And all the questions a researcher asks is how to access the information?"

Are private archives more difficult to access than public archives because they are scattered?

"They are certainly more scattered, but unlike public archives, private archives are not protected by state secrecy or a disclosure deadline. The work now involves creating a typology of these private archives. There are activist or association archives, such as those of SEIVA (Structure d'échange et d'information sur Valduc), the local information commission (CLI) responsible for monitoring the CEA Valduc. These archives are currently being classified. A second-year master's archivist student has been doing this work for several months. For the time being, they are still at the SEIVA premises in Dijon. But the ultimate goal is to transfer them to the Côte-d'Or departmental archives."

What can we find in this SEIVA archive fund?

"These are, for the most part, reports on tritium emissions into the environment, data collected by local authorities, documents on the reactions of local residents, and local press reviews. All of these elements allow us to reconstruct the history of this site, based on information held by observers outside the CEA. As such, we invite anyone in possession of documents to contact the Côte-d'Or departmental archives."