It’s not just wind turbines that need wind to spin. Also nuclear power plants. And, at this moment, the breeze is capricious. During his speech on November 9, 2021, Emmanuel Macron revealed his wish to “relaunch the construction of nuclear reactors in our country”, And this “for the first time in decades”, to replace part of the existing fleet, which is reaching the end of its life. The Head of State sees in the atom the means of “guarantee the energy independence of France” and “the electricity supply of our country”, as well as the fastest path to ” Our goals “ environmental, “especially carbon neutrality in 2050”. But, since then, no more news, or almost.
Nuclear power was not mentioned during the presidential vows on December 31, during which the tenant of the Elysée Palace simply underlined that “we will have to make new industrial choices, in particular in terms of energy, which are unprecedented, in order to meet our climate commitments”. Then, Mr. Macron once again praised the atom in an interview with Parisian, on January 5, but without specifying what his plan actually covers: how many reactors, where, when and at what cost? The Head of State was however to detail it before the end of 2021. Officially, the Covid-19 epidemic delayed the machine. The pangs encountered by the sector in recent weeks do not offer, either, a context conducive to major announcements.
Pressure from the CEO of EDF
Thursday, January 13, EDF announced to reduce its forecast of nuclear electricity production for 2022. In question: the shutdown of ten reactors out of the fifty-six in the French fleet, including five for identified corrosion problems or suspected. A news which follows the revelation of a new delay in the construction of the EPR of Flamanville (Manche), which was to be put into service in 2012 and will not be it finally before the “second quarter 2023”, acknowledged the public group, Wednesday. The bill for the project, meanwhile, has quadrupled compared to the initial budget. One “shipwreck”, denounced the candidate of rebellious France in the presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Despite these difficulties, the CEO of EDF, Jean-Bernard Lévy, allowed himself to be pressured in the face of the government’s wait-and-see attitude. On January 4, in front of journalists, he judged ” urgent “ to engage “concrete actions” to translate the promises of Emmanuel Macron. This had the gift of annoying the Minister of Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili. “The new EPRs will be in 2037. Jean-Bernard Lévy should deal with what is happening now. The French state has put a lot of money into nuclear, Flamanville, skills development, etc. », she recently thundered, according to comments reported by a visitor. According to someone close to the Head of State, the President of the Republic wants to make his announcements from Belfort, where there are turbines that EDF is to buy from the American General Electric. No date has been set at this time.
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