French President Calls for Major Increase in Nuclear Power

Credit to Author: Darrell Proctor| Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022 20:00:53 +0000

France, already a world leader in nuclear power generation, plans to build at least six new reactors, with President Emmanuel Macron on Feb. 10 saying the country will consider building an additional eight on top of that as it also moves forward with developing small modular reactors (SMR).

Macron, who is up for re-election in April, made the comments during an appearance Thursday at GE Steam Power’s manufacturing site at Belfort in eastern France. He said nuclear power is critical to the country’s efforts to increase its output of carbon-free electricity as it moves away from coal and natural gas.

French officials recently said the country would allow its last two operational coal-fired power plants to operate far more than usually permitted through at least the end of February due to about a dozen of France’s 56 existing reactors being offline for maintenance. France usually receives more than 70% of its electricity from nuclear power, with just 2% from coal-fired generators.

Macron said France must find ways to generate as much as 60% more electricity by 2050 even as it exits fossil fuels. “Key to producing this electricity in the most carbon-free, safest and most sovereign way is precisely to have a plural strategy … to develop both renewable and nuclear energies,” Macron said Thursday. “We have no other choice but to bet on these two pillars at the same time. It is the most relevant choice from an ecological point of view and the most expedient from an economic point of view and finally the least costly from a financial point of view.”

Increasing Renewable Energy

EDF, France’s state-owned electric utility, has a goal to increase renewable energy this decade in addition to supporting nuclear power. Hydropower at present is the country’s leading source of renewable energy, accounting for about 10% of electricity production. EDF in 2017 launched a plan to promote development of solar photovoltaic energy in France, and its EDF Renewables subsidiary also is involved in onshore and offshore wind.

Want to learn more about advances in nuclear power technology, and why energy analysts think it’s important in the fight against climate change? Read “Climate Ripe for Nuclear Advancements” in the January 2022 issue of POWER.

Macron said rather than reducing its reliance on nuclear power, France should look to extend the operating life of its existing reactors, as long as safety is not compromised. “If it is necessary to be cautious about the ability to extend our reactors, I hope that no nuclear reactor in a state of production will be closed in the future given the very significant increase in our electrical needs; except, of course, if safety reasons were necessary,” he said.

The president said some reactors already have had operating licenses extended beyond 40 years, and he would ask EDF, France’s state-owned electric utility, and ASN, the nuclear regulator, to “study the conditions for extending beyond 50 years.”

Lessons Learned

Macron said the new-build program is based on what the country has learned from other recent new reactor construction. That includes the oft-delayed Flamanville 3 project. Construction of a single Generation III 1,600-MW EPR began in 2007 at the site of an existing nuclear station at Flamanville in Normandy. The project was initially scheduled to be completed in 2012, but the reactor is still not in service, and its total projected cost—$14.4 billion—is now estimated at four times its original cost. 

“We have learned lessons from the construction of EPR in Finland, where it is now complete, and in France at Flamanville. EDF has undertaken with the nuclear sector the design of a new reactor for the French market, the EPR2, which has already mobilized more than one million hours of engineering and presents significant progress compared with the EPR of Flamanville,” Macron said. “I would like six EPR2s to be built and for us to launch studies on the construction of eight additional EPR2s. We will thus advance step by step.”

EDF, France’s state-owned utility, in January said the Flamanville 3 reactor will cost 300 million euros ($340 million) more than forecast, putting the project’s total cost at 12.7 billion euros ($14.4 billion). The group said fuel loading at the site is being pushed back by as much as six months. Courtesy: EDF

The president said preparations for the new reactors will begin over the next few weeks, including finalizing reactor designs and locations, with public discussions of the plans taking place in the second half of this year.

“We are aiming for construction to begin by 2028, with the first reactor commissioned by 2035,” he said. “This implementation deadline also justifies the need to extend our current reactors and develop renewable energies.”

Macron said 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) will be made available through the France 2030 re-industrialization plan for the country’s Nuward SMR project, along with other “innovative reactors to close the fuel cycle and produce less waste.” He said he wants to have a prototype built in France by the end of the decade, while acknowledging that is “an ambitious goal.”

25 GW of New Nuclear by 2050

“This new program could lead to the commissioning of 25 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity by 2050,” Macron said. “To implement these decisions, the regulatory, financial and organizational conditions of the sector and of the state must be met.” He added, “an inter-ministerial program department dedicated to new nuclear power will be created to oversee it, coordinate administrative procedures, and ensure compliance with construction costs and deadlines. EDF will build and operate the new EPRs.”

“This national sovereignty enterprise, which is our common good, will be able to count on the support of the state for its solidity in the months, years and decades to come and to carry out this project on a scale unmatched for 40 years and to do so under the best financial and operational conditions,” Macron said. “From a financial and regulatory perspective, massive public funding of several tens of billions of euros will be committed to finance this new program, which will make it possible to preserve EDF’s financial situation and develop the entire sector.”

Macron’s ramp-up of nuclear power differs from that of his predecessor, Francois Hollande, who had called for the country to close reactors and reduce nuclear’s share of the national power generation mix to 50% by 2025. A law enacted during Hollande’s term said EDF would have to close older reactors in order to bring new ones online.

A climate initiative presented in 2019 under Macron’s administration said the “50% by 2025” target for reducing the country’s reliance on nuclear power should be pushed to 2035.

Darrell Proctor is a senior associate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).

 

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