New nuclear reactors: EDF says it is ready, many questions to be clarified

EDF said it was ready on Wednesday to build new EPR nuclear reactors in France, the day after the green light from President Emmanuel Macron, but many questions remain to be clarified.

“EDF has worked a lot with the nuclear industry to be able to say that we are ready. We are ready,” assured the CEO of the electricity giant, Jean-Bernard Lévy, during a hearing in the Senate.

Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday that France would relaunch a nuclear program and build new reactors some 20 years after the last ones put into service in the country. However, he postponed details of these future EPRs, designed to be safer and more powerful than the previous generation, until later.

“We will, for the first time in decades, relaunch the construction of nuclear reactors in our country and continue to develop renewable energies,” the president said during a televised address, as this subject agitates the pre-campaign presidential election of 2022.

Some candidates advocate a more or less rapid exit from nuclear (environmentalists or rebellious) while others (especially on the right and the far right but also the Communist Party) are in favor of this energy.

The candidate for the nomination LR Xavier Bertrand assures for example that his first measure of president would be to “launch the construction of 10 new nuclear reactors”.

France – which depends mainly on nuclear power to produce its electricity but whose fleet of power plants is aging – is currently building only one new generation reactor, on the Flamanville site (Manche).

It is due to start at the end of 2022 after many delays and the executive has finally given up waiting for this deadline to make decisions on future reactors, accelerating after a recent report by the operator of the RTE electricity network highlighting the economic advantages of nuclear power and the need to act quickly to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

“We proposed that a first step be to build six reactors on three sites”, recalled Jean-Bernard Lévy: first in Penly (Seine-Maritime), near Dieppe, then in Gravelines (North) and finally in Bugey (Ain) or Tricastin (Drôme).

“It is a question of changing dimension, changing gear”, underlined the CEO of EDF.

– From 2035 –

After the setbacks at Flamanville, EDF is praising its experience in building new reactors in China and England.

The renewal of the nuclear fleet “is an unprecedented industrial and social challenge”, also estimated with AFP Virginie Neumayer, CGT union representative at EDF.

“The news is very well received,” said Nicolas Vincent, CGT secretary general of the Penly plant, the first site considered. “There is a kind of local consensus to welcome these two EPRs”, regrets for his part Guillaume Blavette, secretary of the STOP-EPR Collective neither in Penly nor elsewhere. “One can wonder about the deadlines for the start of construction”, he remarks.

EDF thinks it can build its EPRs in about fifteen years, with a possible first unit in service in 2035 and a second the following year, the group said.

But beyond the green light in principle, Emmanuel Macron did not give details on the new program that must be initiated.

“The president will have the opportunity to speak in the coming weeks on this subject to give details,” said Gabriel Attal, government spokesman.

The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, also said that he could not specify at this stage the number of reactors: “is it 6? Is it 8? what is 10? I can’t tell you. ”

A certain number of hot topics thus remain to be clarified, in particular of a financial nature: “what will be the nature of the receipts of these reactors?”, “How can all this be financed since everyone knows that EDF is extremely in debt?”, A underlined Mr. Lévy.

In addition to the industrial challenge, the Court of Auditors had estimated the construction cost of six new generation EPRs (EPR2) at 46 billion euros.

bur-jmi / ico / eb