France Announces a Big Buildup of Its Nuclear Power Program – The New York Times

Source: France Announces a Big Buildup of Its Nuclear Power Program – The New York Times

…With an estimated starting price of 50 billion euros ($57 billion), Mr. Macron’s blueprint consists of constructing six mammoth next-generation pressurized water reactors at existing nuclear sites around France starting in 2028, with an option to consider building up to eight more by 2050.

Saying it had “fallen behind” in the nuclear energy race, Mr. Macron said France would also build a prototype small modular reactor — a new type of scaled-down nuclear power plant — by 2030, pitting the country against a growing number of others pushing out the technology.

Environmental groups denounced the plan, saying that Mr. Macron had not consulted Parliament or French citizens, and that nuclear power, which doesn’t produce direct carbon emissions but generates long-term radioactive waste, was a nonstarter in the fight against climate change.

“This is a crucial decision that would engage France for centuries in terms of the hazardous waste that nuclear facilities produce,” Nicolas Nace, the head of energy transition policy at Greenpeace France, said. “There has been no real democratic debate about this — just a candidate making opportunistic declarations,” he added.

Climate change and the nuclear industry’s potential role in it have become a central issue in France’s coming presidential election. Most candidates, with the exception of France’s Greens party, have said nuclear power is needed to meet climate goals.

The nuclear industry is a national priority in France, creating about 200,000 jobs directly and indirectly.

France relies on an aging fleet of 56 nuclear reactors — the most after the United States, with 93 — to generate 70 percent of its electricity and to export energy to other countries. But France has fallen from dominance as EDF, which has grappled with a series of longstanding setbacks, faces a full-blown crisis just as Europe struggles with an energy crunch.

On Thursday, Mr. Macron said France would ramp up those power sources by seeking to create at least 50 offshore wind farms and doubling France’s capacity of onshore wind power. France will also increase its solar power capacity tenfold, to generate over 100 gigawatts of power, by 2030, he said.

“We need to massively develop renewable energies,” Mr. Macron said, “because it is the only way to meet our immediate electricity needs, since it takes 15 years to build a nuclear reactor.”

Whether EDF can fulfill Mr. Macron’s orders remains to be seen. The debt-laden company has been grappling with corrosion problems at old nuclear reactors for years. It has also struggled to convince foreign buyers that it can deliver projects on time and within budget.

The company’s pressurized reactors — the type that Mr. Macron called for in his speech — have faced severe delays and cost overruns.

In France, a reactor in the northwestern town of Flamanville that was supposed to be completed in 2012 at a cost of €3 billion has faced setbacks and won’t open until at least 2023, with the bill ballooning to over €12 billion.

Another EDF reactor, in Finland, was planned to open in 2009; it now won’t start full power production until June. The EDF-backed Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in China’s Guangdong Province faced what the company said were “performance issues” last year.

Mr. Macron said the government would “assume its responsibilities” in securing EDF’s finances and its short- and medium-term financing capacity. France will provide the company with what is likely to be tens of billions in state aid — made possible in part after Mr. Macron lobbied Brussels to classify nuclear energy as a green investment.