A few weeks before the presentation of the bill relating to energy sovereignty, the executive is marking the ground for an increase in EPR reactors on French territory. Since the Belfort speech of February 2022, in which Emmanuel Macron announced the relaunch of nuclear power, the government has carried out a program of six new EPRs and eight as options. The Head of State had already opened the door in December to an announcement on these eight additional reactors ” in the coming months “.
Almost a month after this outing, the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, drives home the point in an interview at the Tribune Sunday from January 7: “We need nuclear power beyond the first six EPRs since the historic park will not be eternal”she told the weekly, according to which the text which will be presented to the Council of Ministers acknowledges these eight reactors but does not give precise objectives for the development of renewable energies by 2030.
Writing the text “remains technologically neutral”assured Mme Pannier-Runacher, according to whom, to increase the share of fossil fuels in the energy mix in France from more than 60% to 40% in 2035, “it involves committing, after 2026, “additional constructions representing 13 gigawatts””. Power that matches “to the power of eight EPRs, without setting this or that technology in stone”said the minister.
Nuclear fuel recycling infrastructure under discussion
The text, however, “breaks with the previous programming law, which reduced the share of nuclear power in the electricity mix to 50% by 2025”said the minister who did not close the door to going even further, calling it “good subject for discussion with parliamentarians” an objective beyond these fourteen EPR reactors.
Among the other measures included in this bill, the minister mentions two components devoted to “price regulation” and to the “consumer protection”which provide in particular for the obligation for suppliers of “send a monthly schedule and an annual estimate for each contract change”as well as faster sanctions for “rogue suppliers”.
Furthermore, the minister indicated that the question of nuclear fuel recycling infrastructures would be on the menu of the next Nuclear Policy Council (CPN), scheduled for January, not excluding “build new capabilities”.