2024-05-08 19:22:50
The desire of Emmanuel Macron‘s predecessor to reduce the share of nuclear power to 50% in electricity production has indeed fizzled out. François Hollande made it a campaign promise in 2012, then tried to keep it during his mandate, without ever succeeding.
Two mandates and a power plant closure later (Fessenheim, in Haut-Rhin in 2020), the current President of the Republic has made a 180° turn: no longer a question of intentionally reducing this share of electricity produced by central (it was 64.8% in 2023, according to RTE).
Three sites planned for new reactors
Better: the State now plans to build six new reactors, EPR 2, a simplified version of the current Flamanville EPR – which will therefore remain a unique model in France. A priori less expensive and less complex, these models will be divided into three pairs on already existing sites: first in Penly (Seine-Maritime) by 2040; then during the following decade in Gravelines (North) and Bugey (Ain).
But while they only exist in plans for the moment, difficulties linked to financing are already appearing. In 2021, EDF’s first estimates put the cost of the program at 51.7 billion euros. Less than three years later, these have already been revised significantly upwards (+ 30%), to now reach 67.4 billion euros.
And it’s probably not over: “EDF will provide a new estimate of the cost of the first 3 pairs of EPR 2 at the end of the year, the group’s management tells us, (…) in view of the evolution the economic context, inflation or even the cost of raw materials. EDF will need some form of state aid to finance this program. »
However, this is not enough to dampen the ambitions of the President of the Republic who is already planning to launch in the longer term a new program for the construction of eight other EPR 2s. To do this, it will still be necessary to have resolved two thorny problems: that of burial of waste, as well as the dismantling of the oldest power plants.
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