2023-05-16 18:58:09
Step by step, nuclear is regaining ground in France and in Europe, to the chagrin of its opponents, the ecologists, but also of Germany and its allies within the EU, such as Austria and Luxembourg.
The National Assembly definitively adopted, Tuesday, May 16, the nuclear acceleration bill which aims to facilitate the construction of new reactors by simplifying administrative procedures. The government wants to launch construction sites for six EPRs by 2035 and studies for eight others, on existing nuclear sites.
Exceptions to common law
To achieve this in time, the text, which is very technical, authorizes a certain number of derogations. The projects will, for example, be exempted from traditional town planning authorisations, the compliance check being carried out by the State departments when the application is submitted. And any appeals will be dealt with directly by the Council of State. This bill is the counterpart of the one, already passed, on renewable energies, aimed at reducing construction times as much as possible.
But the Senate also amended the text and won its case by being joined by the deputies. “We must no longer have shameful nuclear power”pleaded Renaissance MP Maud Bregeon, rapporteur for the bill.
The parliamentarians thus raised a ” lock “ introduced by the law of 2015, which aimed precisely to limit nuclear power. The text removes the objective of reducing its share in the electricity mix to 50% by 2035, as well as the ceiling of 63.2 GW of total authorized capacity.
The text is ahead of the next PPE
But for Greenpeace and the Nuclear Exit Network, “the government is acting on a forced march recovery” nuclear. They accuse him of putting the cart before the horse”. Because the share to be given to the different energies must be voted in the future multiannual energy programming law (PPE), scheduled for the second half of the year. It is therefore she who must say whether or not to build new EPRs. At the Penly power plant, the first preparatory work for the construction of the first pair of EPR2s has already begun.
On the other hand, the government did not succeed in pushing through its nuclear safety reform, which aroused much opposition and took everyone by surprise. He wanted to bring together the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), technical expert, within the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), the police of the power stations. For the sake of efficiency, according to him, as is done in several countries.
However, the government has not given up on the project, which should therefore come out, sooner or later. In a joint joint committee, deputies and senators also deleted an amendment voted in the Assembly aimed at preventing any merger and guaranteeing an organization ” dual “ between IRSN and ASN.
The European nuclear alliance is growing
On the European front, France succeeded in advancing the nuclear cause by creating an alliance at the end of February. The third meeting was held in Paris on Tuesday May 16, bringing together sixteen countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, Slovakia, as well that Italy, as an observer and the United Kingdom, presented as a guest ” special guest “, to share its feedback, with the ongoing construction by EDF of the two Hinkley Point reactors. European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson was also invited.
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« It is not only an alliance of industrial interests to build a long-term vision, but also a real diplomatic alliance to be able to weigh much more within the European Union and make our interests prevail on this subject.we explain to the cabinet of Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the Minister of Energy Transition, recalling that eleven countries had participated in the first meeting and thirteen in the second.
Building a European sector
The objective is to share experiences and skills, while several countries are in the process of building reactors and others wish to launch, or rather, most of the time, return to nuclear power.
This alliance also aims to find ways to strengthen Europe’s independence vis-à-vis Russia, particularly in terms of uranium enrichment. The subject does not concern France, we explain to the Ministry of Energy Transition, but the countries of Central Europe, whose power plants are of Russian origin, for obvious historical reasons.
According to Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the nuclear potential in Europe could reach « 150 gigawatts in 2050 »compared to 100 today.
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