French President Emmanuel Macron met his nuclear policy steering committee this Friday to discuss the cadence of the accelerated relaunch of this sector, a “priority project” declared a year ago given the energy and climate crises.
After the meeting at the Élysée, the Presidency did not announce the construction schedule for six EPR2 reactors, the first commissioning of which should take place “by 2025 at the latest”.
But the commission has “reviewed” the program and recalled that it intends to mobilize all actors to “ensure that the details and objectives” of this key element of France’s nuclear strategy are “respected,” according to a statement from the Élysée, designation of the palace housing the French Presidency.
The main novelty of the meeting was “the launch of studies leading to the preparation of the extension of the life of existing power plants to 60 years or more, under strict safety conditions, guaranteed by the Nuclear Safety Authority”. In this way, the French state endorses the claim of EDF, which operates the power plants, which wants to extend the life of these installations, currently limited to 40 years.
The year 2023 is crucial for France’s energy future, which must legislate the part related to each energy source, namely nuclear power, to move away from fossil fuels and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
“Now that the direction is clear, we need a cockpit and a boss on board”was in the communiqué of the Élysée, where it was emphasized that “the huge site” of the new reactors “weighs more than 60 billion euros”, despite the fact that the financing issue, still to be decided, was not on the work agenda .
And the boss wants to show he’s on board: Macron will now meet this nuclear policy steering committee twice a year.
Also this Friday, the Belgian press reported that the Belgian government is studying the extension of the useful life of three more nuclear reactors, after extending the operation of two other units by ten years due to the energy crisis.
Source: DN
