To the attention of the Human Resources department of Fives Nordon (piping subsidiary of the Fives group)

Dear sir or madam,

In my search for new professional opportunities, I heard that the announcements of the nuclear revival boosted your business more than ever. Whereas a few years previously, it was in a marked decline in activity due to the sad announcements of nuclear reactor closures, concomitant with the Fukushima disaster.

Following this, your company Fives Nordon pointed its nose towards nuclear fuel, and expanded the company’s portfolio with the purchase of the ACCP company in La Hague (then in receivership), which means that the company is also involved in piping and boilermaking projects for the new spent fuel pools. While your company was already present on the eternal Flamanville EPR construction site, it is also participating in the construction of new power plants and EPRs in Finland, China, the United Kingdom, and even in Saudi Arabia. Cool, then !

It is following the announcements of the relaunch of nuclear power, and the winning for tenders concerning the engineering of the engine room of the future EPR2 (if they ever arrive!) that your company invested 40 million euros [1] on its sites and launched the recruitment of nearly 600 employees in the field of piping and nuclear boilermaking in its workshops, part of which (and the head office) is located 78 Avenue du 20e Corps in Nancy.

More broadly, I saw that the nuclear sector today has more than 3,000 companies [2] and more than 220,000 employees, including nearly 20,000 in the Grand Est. According to the Minister of the Economy, an additional 10,000 to 15,000 will be needed per year by 2030 to complete the projects planned by the executive. It is in this thriving context full of job promises that I would like to join your company.

By inquiring, I also learned about the influence of Fives Nordon in Lorraine, as a recipient of the Nuclear Pass [3]. Your grandiose company has been training and recruiting since 2022, via the new training courses of the UIMM (Union of Metallurgical Industries and Trades) from Lorraine to Maxéville [4], in welding or nuclear piping.

And even last November, the former Macronist MP from Nancy, Carole Grandjean, who was then Minister of Education and Vocational Training, came in person to encourage the initiative, complaining about the lack of current staff for the imminent needs of the nuclear industry! What was my joy to learn that she even encouraged the training and recruitment of women in this industrial sector !

In any case, fortunately the France Relance plan is there to line up the checks, and the journalists are lining up to praise the recruitment propaganda of the good little soldier Fives Nordon! It was also thanks to them that I discovered your company, during a detailed communication campaign relayed in several regional media, to promote nuclear training, with a real sense of patriotic dedication.

To convince more students and high school students to join this sector, the government has also launched scholarships of €600 per month awarded by the University of Nuclear Professions [5]. If that’s not generous !

And it’s not just in Maxéville that we train in nuclear power in the Grand Est! In the shadow of the UIMM, restored by the talent and blindness of your trainers, we also find the Chooz training courses, via the GRETA-CFA des Ardennes, in St Dizier, at the Blaise Pascal professional high school, in Thionville in the brickyard, and even at the Loritz secondary school for vocational training in Nancy. Because yes, we will have to train the precarious workers who will come into contact with radiation in the maintenance of nuclear installations, whether in the extended power plants as part of the Great Carénage (lifespan of 60 years) or in future projects democratically launched by our gentle government.

We can even imagine that if there is a need for welders in Bure, 80 km from Nancy, where the State wants to bury some 83,000 cubic meters of radioactive waste in a hole, it might be the employees of Fives Nordon who are going to stick to it!

For all these missions, let’s be honest, we must put the resources into recruitment, because there is no rush at the gate! I had also heard several times about Nordon Fives, a renowned company, during nuclear careers forums, such as the one organized by the Cattenom power plant last March, and more recently, this February 6, 2024 during the 2nd day of nuclear careers at the ANDRA technological space in Bure-Saudron, where I was.

For me, working in the nuclear industry today means participating in restoring the image and greatness of France on a geopolitical level with the use of nuclear power for military purposes. Thanks to the reprocessing plant de la Hague and the numerous arsenals and factories in the military nuclear sector (Cherbourg, Toulon, Brest, etc.). This energy is clean, carbon-free (well, except at the beginning, and at the end, and also a little during), and sovereign thanks to the import and exploitation of uranium mines on the other side of the world (and thanks to the export of its pollution to poor countries)! It is a major asset in the industrial and military development of France and in the pursuit of the sacrosanct growth that we all cherish.

Over and above the health conditions of nuclear workers and residents living near uranium mines, power plants, reprocessing centers, various waste garbage cans, and the transportation of radioactive materials and waste from one end of France to the other, etc…. And, quite apart from the pollution of rivers and land near all this noise, and the risk of future nuclear accidents such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima, it goes without saying that we need to revive this industry, which is full of life, joy and hope!

With all this in mind, I hereby apply for a position as a nuclear welder with Fives Nordon. As a subcontracted worker, I’d be prepared to receive up to 80% of the radioactivity doses from France’s nuclear power plants, without the benefit of adequate medical monitoring. Don’t worry about leukemia or thyroid cancer, I’m a key candidate for a company like yours.

With my adventurous temperament, I’m sure I’ll be able to meet the challenges posed by the revival of the nuclear industry, and respond to the accelerating pace of production due to the competition between subcontractors in the sector. Under these conditions, I will do my best to carry out all the tasks required to guarantee the safety of our facilities. To this end, the current merger between ASN and IRSN will cast a dark shadow over these degrading working conditions, as well as the consequent risk of nuclear accidents to the public at large. Just in case, I’ve got some iodine capsules in my first aid box !

Finally, to guarantee better team cohesion within the company, it goes without saying that I’ll keep my mouth shut and remain docile, and that I won’t denounce the conditions of my work, at the risk of union repression, as was recently the case for Gilles Renault, accused of speaking out too much and sacked by his superiors [6] (Orano subsidiary, Tricastin, 2020), Laurent, whose career was halted for union discrimination [7] (Sud Energie at EDF, Belleville-sur-Loire), or the RTE workers taken into custody by the DGSI in 2022 [8]. In short, I’d love to join you, Fives Nordon!

There’s no need to contact me again, your addresses and agenda are well known. Whether it’s your company, a nuclear training school, or any other player in the disaster industry, we’ll get back to you by any means necessary.

See you soon, Fives Nordon.

PS: in copy, the UIMM of Maxéville, as well as Eric Molodtzoff of France 3, Guillaume Decourt and Pascal Salciarini of l’Est Républicain, Mickaël Demeaux of Républicain Lorrain, and ici-c-nancy, who wrote glowing articles advertising Fives Nordon and the nuclear industry. And as an added bonus, a number of letters were sent to the region’s temping agencies, training centers and nuclear power plants.