The Caisse des Dépôts (CDC) has taken a new step by making available billions of euros deposited in Livret A accounts, mainly dedicated to social housing, for the financing of new nuclear power plants, its director general, Olivier Sichel, announced on Thursday.
“We agreed with Bercy and then with EDF to use the Savings Fund” to finance new EPR reactors, declared Olivier Sichel during a meeting organized by the Association of Economic and Financial Journalists (Ajef).
The Savings Fund centralizes and manages 59.5% of the regulated savings of French people deposited in Livrets A, Sustainable and Solidarity Development Books (LDDS) and Popular Savings Books (LEP). The endowment is around 400 billion euros.
100 billion euros
Half is dedicated to long-term loans for social housing and urban policy. The other half is invested in debt securities (mainly state-owned) and shares of listed companies, of which the “Caisse” does not provide the complete list.
Nuclear energy “is obviously part of our energy sovereignty,” recalled Olivier Sichel.
At the beginning of June, the French government approved the construction program of six new high-power EPR reactors until 2038.
The evaluation of the costs of this program is not yet complete, but the minister responsible for Energy, Marc Ferracci, now resigned, set the magnitudes in February, citing a cost “below 100 billion euros.”
Olivier Sichel was also cautious in the face of a possible next financial crisis, estimating that the current colossal investments in artificial intelligence create a parallel with the Internet bubble of the late 90s, and specified that the net profit of the “Caisse” should be around 5 billion euros in 2025.
Source: BFM TV
