The French parliament this Tuesday finally passed the bill that promotes nuclear energy, to realize President Emmanuel Macron’s ambition to build six new EPR reactors by 2035.
A week after broad Senate support, delegates voted in favor of the text by 399 votes to 100, with the right, far right and the communists voting in favour, while ecologists and the radical left voted against and the socialists abstained. .
The project simplifies the process of realizing the ambition to build six new EPR reactors and start studies for a further eight, limited to new installations in existing or nearby nuclear facilities in France.
The text thus deletes the target of reducing the share of nuclear energy in the French electricity mix by 50% by 2035, as well as the ceiling of 63.2 gigawatts of total authorized nuclear generating capacity.
France’s nuclear power renaissance comes when Germany shuts down its last three reactors in mid-April.
The construction of the EPRs in Finland, which came into operation in April, and in Flamanville (France), experienced years of delays and additional costs, which were one of the reasons for the industrial dismantling of Areva, marked by losses.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world went from 441 reactors in operation in 2002, the peak, to 422 by the end of 2022.
France remains the most nuclear country per capita with 56 reactors.
Source: DN
