As the need for electricity will grow to allow the country to move away from fossil fuels, President Emmanuel Macron supports the construction of six new-generation EPR reactors, with an option for
eight others, with the parallel development of renewable energies, first of all solar and marine wind power.

A bill to accelerate renewable energy, whose deployment is lagging behind, will be examined by the Senate starting Wednesday.

On the same day, a text on nuclear power arrives at the Council of Ministers, to be examined in early 2023, first in the National Assembly, said the Ministry of Energy Transition.

“If we want to be energy independent but also meet our climate objectives, we must replace fossil fuels with low-carbon energy. Nuclear power is today the lowest-carbon energy of all the solutions available to us,” explained Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher on Friday at the Chinon power plant (Indre-et-Loire).

“Save time”

Installed on the sites of existing power plants, the future EPRs would be located, for the first two, in Penly (Seine-Maritime) and Gravelines (Nord). The location of the third pair of reactors has not been decided, with the Rhone Valley (Bugey or Tricastin) being considered.
The bill presented on Wednesday aims to “save time” by simplifying administrative procedures: for example, the sites would be exempted from planning permission because the control of conformity would be ensured by the State services. And work on buildings not intended to receive radioactive substances may be carried out before the public inquiry is completed.

Emmanuel Macron could lay the foundation stone before the end of his mandate in 2027, even if the commissioning of this first EPR could not take place before 2035 or 2037. France, which relies on nuclear power for about 70% of its electricity, had decided in 2015 to diversify its supply sources by closing 14 of its 58 reactors (two have already shut down), before a reversal announced by the president in late 2021.

The National Council for Ecological Transition (CNTE), which includes trade unions, employers and NGOs, was consulted for its opinion and “regretted the insufficient time allowed” to give its opinion on the bill. The CNTE also notes that this law “cannot prejudge the conclusions of the public debate”.

Public debates

This bill “does not pre-empt the ongoing consultations or future energy and climate laws that will decide” in fine, the ministry assured Monday. Parliamentarians will have to vote on France’s climate and energy strategy in the second half of 2023.

Until then, the French will be able to express themselves during a public debate on the construction of the six EPRs, and another broader consultation on energy, organized by the government until December 31, notably online (concertation-energie.gouv.fr). These two processes can be based on the 2050 scenarios of the network operator RTE and Ademe. All of these scenarios include a surge in renewable energies, with a variable share of nuclear power (or no nuclear power at all, which would however require very deliberate sobriety measures).