The choice had to be made between the site of Tricastin, in Drôme, and that of Bugey, in Ain. It was ultimately this last nuclear power plant, located 45 km from Lyon, which was chosen to host the third pair of future new-generation EPR2 reactors. The announcement was made official on Wednesday, at the end of the Nuclear Policy Council, by the Elysée.
The sites of Penly, in Seine-Maritime, and Gravelines, in the North, had already been designated for the construction of two EPR2 each, for this vast plan for “revival of civil nuclear power”, announced by Emmanuel Macron, two months before his re-election in February 2022. In total, six new generation reactors will be installed by 2037 by EDF.
Technical studies continue for Tricastin
“The installation of these EPR2s in Bugey is excellent news. In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, we have always believed in the carbon-free energy of nuclear power. Shutting down reactors, following the ideology of pseudo-ecologists, was madness,” said tweeted the president of the region Laurent Wauquiez.
At Progress, he confided all the same that he likes “that everyone wins”, Tricastin is also part of the region. The elected official then “explained to the President of the Republic what is akin to a common project, with the aim of obtaining new reactors in Tricastin during a second wave and 100% success for the region”, relates the local daily.
The government thus assured that “technical studies and analyzes” would continue on this site “with a view to hosting future nuclear reactors”. For her part, the president of the Drôme departmental council, Marie-Pierre Mouton, expressed in a press release her “very great disappointment”, on behalf of Tricastin and “of a whole living area extended to four departments and three regions”, acknowledging that the technical file of Bugey “had a small head start”. “We are ready to welcome the next next generation EPRs which will necessarily be programmed very quickly”, she launched however.