PARIS (Reuters) – The French state will ensure that the Atos subsidiary specializing in the management of nuclear power plants remains under the control of public authorities, Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday.

“There is no question that this control-command of nuclear power plants can go I don’t really know where. It must remain under the control of the public authorities”, underlined the Minister of the Economy and Finance at the microphone of Europe 1.

A month ago, the State sent the French IT group, which has undertaken a vast restructuring to deal with its financial difficulties, a letter of intent with a view to acquiring its activities deemed strategic – supercomputer, cybersecurity and all that. which relates to military activities, recalled Bruno Le Maire.

But “there remains a very important element, what we call the control and command of French nuclear power plants”, he added.

“I will ensure that the control and command of the nuclear power plants which (…) [n’est] not yet within the perimeter that we have secured, or within the perimeter that we have secured, which will remain under the control of the public authorities,” declared the Minister of the Economy.

“It could be EDF or a company close to EDF which regains control of strategic activities. I confirm to you that all of Atos’ strategic activities will remain under the control of public authorities,” he said.

The daily Les Echos reported in early May that Worldgrid, which designs nuclear power plant control systems for EDF, was in the process of being sold.

According to Les Echos, Worldgrid could be valued at up to 300 million euros, even though its book value in Atos’ balance sheet at the end of 2022 amounted to 32.3 million euros.

(Written by Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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