Emmanuel Macron will be at Belfort this Thursday for a trip devoted to the French energy strategy, announces the Elysée this Tuesday afternoon. On this occasion, the Head of State, who has still not formalized his presidential candidacy, “will present his vision of our energy policy, which is based in particular on energy savings, on the development of renewables and on the relaunch of French nuclear power,” the statement said. The speech is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. this Thursday.
Six new EPR-type reactors… Or even more?
It is on this aspect of the “relaunch of French nuclear power” that Emmanuel Macron is particularly awaited. The President of the Republic should specify his speech of November 9th. “We are going, for the first time in decades, to relaunch the construction of nuclear reactors in our country,” he announced. According to France Info, Emmanuel Macron is expected to confirm the launch of six new conventional reactors. But it could be more, depending The echoes who says he has this information from a source familiar with the matter. The latter specifies that these starts must be announced both for the short term and for the medium term. Contacted by “20Minutes”, the Elyse does not confirm this information.
Go beyond the work scenario requested from EDF?
This would then amount to going beyond the work scenario entrusted to EDF. In a letter dated September 12, 2019, Elisabeth Borne (Minister for the Ecological and Solidarity Transition) and Bruno Le Maire, Minister for the Economy, had given a precise roadmap to Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of EDF, to “be able to respond to the execution of a construction program for three pairs of reactors on three separate sites. »
In the past, the government had assured not wanting to take a decision on the construction of new nuclear reactors in France as long as that of Flamanville would not be commissioned. However, this should not be before the spring of 2023, EDF having announced a new delay on January 12. The energy company explains it “by an industrial context made more difficult by the pandemic”. The estimate of the cost of this new reactor went from 12.4 to 12.7 billion euros.
As a reminder, the commissioning of this new generation reactor was scheduled for 2012. And its initial cost was estimated at 3.4 billion euros.