Maureen Kearney, the CFDT secretary of Areva’s European group committee, alerted French politicians and journalists in 2011–2012 to a confidential arrangement involving EDF, Areva and China’s CGNPC. The proposed cooperation included nuclear-technology transfers that could have benefited Chinese reactor projects. Areva initially denied the contract’s existence, while French reporting later published excerpts of a draft agreement on 27 September 2012; Le Canard enchaîné subsequently reported an October 2012 State Holdings Agency note on the issue. Economics Minister Arnaud Montebourg commissioned a General Inspectorate of Finance investigation in December 2012, and negotiations reportedly continued without Areva despite a 2011 policy requiring EDF to work with Areva on such projects.
Kearney reported escalating threats before being attacked at her home on 17 December 2012. She was found bound and injured, and investigators later focused on her after she confessed during police custody to fabricating the assault, a confession she said resulted from threats against her family. She was convicted in 2017 and received five months’ probation plus a €5,000 fine, but an appeals court acquitted her in 2018 and criticized investigative failures. The attack was never solved. The episode became a major French whistleblower case, illustrating the risks of challenging opaque state-backed industrial deals, although the source does not establish who ordered the assault or whether the technology-transfer allegations were ultimately proven.
