With the new EPRs, a much too forced recovery in France?

“I clearly asked the question to industrialists: do they know how to go beyond 14 reactors by 2050? “, spear Agnes Pannier-Runacher, Minister for Energy Transition, this Wednesday in an interview to Echoes. A year ago, in Belfort, Emmanuel Macron was talking about building six new EPR2 reactors, including the first twoon the site of the Penly nuclear power plant (Seine-Maritime). To this, he added eight additional EPRs under study.

The words of Agnès Pannier-Runacher therefore suggest that the government is considering an even more ambitious relaunch of nuclear power in France, and justifies it by the need to produce massively more electricity to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The day before, the Minister brought together twelve of her counterparts in Stockholm (Sweden) to launch “a nuclear alliance” within the European Union, with a view to developing new projects and promoting this energy.

Start work at Penly as soon as possible?

Add again the nuclear acceleration bill, already passed in first reading in the Senate, in January, and which lands from this Wednesday evening in the Assembly. It will first be examined in committee and then, from 17 March, in plenary.

Its aim is to simplify the administrative procedures linked to the construction of future EPRs. Clearly, at Penly, EDF could undertake non-nuclear works (consolidation of the cliff, earthworks, clearing) without waiting for the green light from the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) – the French nuclear policeman – for the actual construction of the two planned future reactors. The first pickaxe could thus start in mid-2024, “which would save one to two years on the total duration of the site”, slips Ludovic Dupin, director of information at the French Nuclear Energy Company (Sfen).

The whole then gives the impression to the Cler-Network for energy transition to witness a forced march of the atom. To the point that Marc Jedliczka, vice-president of the association, wonders what has stung the government. “There is not yet a single EPR working in France, no EPR2 under construction, and Agnès Pannier-Runacher is already planning more than 14? “, he protests.

A new deal more favorable to the atom?

Ludovic Dupin responds by the need “to activate all the levers of low-carbon energy production to achieve our climate objectives”. “Nuclear, just like renewable energies, he summarizes. He adds the war in Ukraine to the picture. “She showed us that the German model of dependence on fossil fuels from a third country [le gaz russe] was no longer possible”. The Sfen spokesperson recalls that France is not the only one to make this choice. “In the EU alone, thirteen other countries are doing the same, often to turn away from coal,” he says.

An analysis that makes Pauline Boyer jump, in charge of the “energy transition” campaign at Greenpeace France. “Without even talking about the ethical and philosophical issues posed by nuclear power, there is already a problem of timing with these new EPRs, since the first is not expected before 2035, she recalls. However, the climate crisis requires us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions now. »

Questions that “deserve a real public debate”

The cost of its six new EPRs is estimated at around 50 billion euros. For Pauline Boyer, “it’s so much money that will not go to the most urgent projects”. “Either the control of energy consumption, via the energy renovation of buildings for example, but also the deployment of renewables (Enr), on which we are very late in France, she explains. They are at the heart of all energy transition scenarios. “In particular those established by RTE, in November 2021, in its major study Energy Futures 2050. Admittedly, these Enr have also just been the subject of an acceleration bill, adopted on February 8. “But we rather observe that this text has added obstacles to their deployment than the reverse”, deplores Marc Jedliczka, then joining a critical made by the Syndicate of Renewable Energies (SER) which brings together professionals in the sector.

For the Cler as for Greenpeace, these questions on the revival of nuclear power deserve in any case a real informed public debate in France”. This could have been done within the framework of the national consultation on the energy mix, which was held between October 20 and December 31, or during the public debate on the construction of new EPRs, launched on October 27 and which ended on Sunday. But Marc Jedliczka deplores the flouted consultations, “since Emmanuel Macron approved, a year ago, the construction of at least six new EPRs and since everyone, including in the upper echelons of the State, has presented this Belfort speech as France’s new energy policy. “In democracy, theoretically, the president does not decide alone in his corner,” insists the vice-president of Cler.

The objective of reducing to 50% the share of nuclear already buried?

At Sfen, we recall that Emmanuel Macron was re-elected after announcing his intention to relaunch nuclear power. “And nothing has yet been recorded in the law on the revival of nuclear power, insists Ludovic Dupin. It will be up to Parliament to decide when examining the energy and climate programming lawt”, which should set the major French energy guidelines for the years to come”.

It should be presented in June, then debated in Parliament from September. But once again, Marc Jedliczka and Pauline Boyer fear that the dice have already been cast. The proof, once again, with this “nuclear acceleration” law currently under review. “Clearly, even before enacting these new EPRs in law, we are already wondering about the ways to reduce the duration of the works as much as possible”, deplores Marc Jedliczka. There is even more concern for Pauline Boyer. “In January, the senators went further by using this bill as a vehicle to remove the objective, enacted under François Hollande, of reducing the share of nuclear power in electricity production to 50% in 2035, explains t -She. It is scandalous and there is little hope that the Assembly will come back to it. “Even the Sfen ticks a little. “It was unexpected and not necessarily the time to do it,” concedes Ludovic Dupin.

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