Nuclear power in France is to be revived. In order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, six new nuclear power plants of the type EPR 2 be built, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday in Belfort in eastern France. The first could start operating in 2035; he would have the construction of a further eight kilns examined. At the same time, the service life of all existing nuclear power plants will be extended if safety permits. As previously announced, Macron wants to fund the development of “Small Modular Reactors”, which are smaller and supposedly safer, with one billion euros.
At the same time, France is taking an important part of power plant production back into its own hands: for an estimated 240 million euros, the energy group EDF is buying back the Belfort-based turbine construction from the US manufacturer General Electric, which the latter had only acquired from Alstom in 2015. Macron gave his speech in front of one of the huge ones made there Arabella-Turbines used in French and some Russian kilns.
With Macron’s plan, France is finally taking a decidedly different path than Germany, which will soon shut down its last nuclear reactors. France currently has 56 nuclear power plants in operation, which supply almost 70 percent of the electricity. A third is older than 40 years and nearing the end of the term.
Two-thirds of France’s energy still comes from fossil fuels such as oil and gas
Macron’s Belfort speech is the latest in a series of steps the liberal wants to take to start a nuclear renaissance in his country. These include an appearance in front of employees of the nuclear company Framatome in Creusot at the end of 2020, the inclusion of nuclear power – with a focus on the search for innovation – in the France 2030 industrial development program and a TV speech last November, in which Macron left details open. Macron repeatedly called nuclear power a “trump card” and a “fortune” for France. It’s about decisions that would keep the country busy for decades, maybe the whole century, Macron said on Thursday. You shouldn’t rush them.
Emmanuel Macron with employees of the turbine plant in Belfort.
(Photo: Jean-Francois Badias/AFP)
Two-thirds of France’s energy consumption is still based on fossil fuels such as oil and gas. Macron’s advisors emphasize that this proportion must be completely replaced by 2030, while at the same time more electricity is required and the costs for consumers should not be too high. All this can only succeed if consumption is reduced by 40 percent and renewable energies are expanded, but nuclear power continues to be used. All of this has to happen at the same time, Macron said in Belfort. Production from renewables should double by 2030. Among other things, 50 new wind farms in the sea are planned by 2050. The French media saw this as a surprisingly ambitious project – and as an attempt to get nuclear-skeptical citizens on board.
Elsewhere in Europe, too, nuclear power is becoming more popular again
In addition to the climate factor, which the French government emphasizes as crucial, nuclear power should bring more independence, in line with the “European sovereignty” that Macron is committed to. France is one of the few countries that has the entire nuclear fuel cycle in national hands, from uranium production in Niger, for example, to power plant construction and fuel recycling.
This approach was supported by Ministers from nine other European countries in a joint text last October. In addition to France and Finland, only Central and Eastern European countries were represented. In France, however, the perception that nuclear power is becoming more attractive again in other parts of Europe is dominant. At least that applies to the Netherlands, whose government is propagating the construction of two new reactors, also with reference to the climate. In Belgium, the decision to phase out by 2025 is shaky. Many would “see the necessity,” says EDF boss Jean-Bernard Lévy, even people who “resist nuclear power in their blood.”
The planned resurgence of the French nuclear industry is massively supported by the EU Commission’s proposal to designate nuclear power and gas as green, sustainable energy, like sun and wind. The text on the “taxonomy” has been on the table since the turn of the year, and it is foreseeable that neither the EU states nor the European Parliament will change it substantially. This will make investing in nuclear power more attractive and will likely significantly reduce the huge financing costs French taxpayers face. The federal government rejects the Brussels proposal, but cannot prevent it due to the lack of a majority.
In the Élysée it is emphasized that the nuclear decision is not purely political, but also scientifically substantiated. Reference is made to the report ordered by Macron from the network operator RTE, which was published in autumn. In it, experts weigh up the costs and effort involved in various energy production scenarios over the coming decades and come to the conclusion that the desired decarbonization would ultimately be more complex and, above all, more expensive without the construction of new nuclear power plants. RTE is 50/50 owned by EDF.
Macron’s appearance means a huge boost for the French nuclear industry and is understood accordingly by the Élysée. The industry, with its 220,000 employees in 2,600 companies, needs help and has urgently asked for it in recent years. Nuclear power is one of France’s key industries, which after the Second World War should also serve to restore the country’s size and importance, in parallel with the military aspect, the acquisition of nuclear weapons. Since de Gaulle’s time, a “technopolitical regime” has emerged, in the words of the US expert Gabrielle Hecht, an interplay of institutions, plans, discourses and technical developments.
The result was still the third largest French industry, a kind of national myth, supported by a firm belief in progress and a significantly higher willingness to take risks than in Germany, for example. No president has substantively challenged this regime; After the Fukushima accident, François Hollande alone advocated reducing the share of nuclear power to 50 percent by 2025, a date that his successor Macron had extended by ten years. It would be the lowest level since 1985.
The right-wing competition is also campaigning for nuclear power
In recent years, a whiff of decline has hung over the French nuclear industry. The last nuclear power plant she built went into operation more than 20 years ago. There were major problems with the construction of pressurized water, so-called EPR reactors of the third generation in Finland and in Flamanville in Brittany. It started there in 2007. Due to technical problems, the completion took much longer and was six times more expensive than planned. It was recently delayed again and is now scheduled for 2023. EDF, by far the most important company in the industry and 84 percent state-owned, is now more than 40 billion euros in debt.
In addition, there are current needs: On Tuesday, EDF announced that eight reactors would soon have to be shut down unscheduled due to corrosion on lines. As a result, electricity production from nuclear power is expected to fall to its lowest level in 30 years. Industry insiders like energy consultant Mycle Schneider have serious doubts about Macron’s plans. The technical and financial problems of nuclear power are so great that the long-term decline of the industry cannot be averted, says Schneider.
Macron has been in office since 2017. It is considered certain that he will run again in the presidential election in April, and he has to register his candidacy by the end of the month. He is a clear leader in polls and the Belfort speech should give him a further boost. His main competitors on the right are vehemently pro-nuclear. The Élysée strenuously denied that the timing of the speech was related to the upcoming election. The topic must now be dealt with, the President wanted to do it before the end of his term in office. Originally, the decision about the future of nuclear power was not to be made until after the Flamanville plant was up and running.