Will France, the second largest nuclear power country after the US, spark a revival in atomic energy? President Emmanuel Macron, once a nuclear skeptic, announced last week that he is committing France to build six new generation of pressurized water nuclear power plants at existing sites, beginning in 2028, with the plants operational in 2035.
“What our country needs is the rebirth of France’s nuclear industry,” Mr. Macron said. “The time has come for a nuclear renaissance.”
Macron’s plan calls for an option to build eight more large nukes by 2050, and an unspecified number of small nuclear reactors, with a prototype SMR in operation by 2030. France currently gets about 70 percent of its electricity production from nuclear, the highest for any country in the world.
The French estimate that Macron’s nuclear policy will have a cost of about $57 billion, all of it financed by the government, for the initial six reactors.
According to the World Nuclear Association, France’s installed capacity at the end of 2019 was 136 GW. The country exports power, mostly to the UK and Italy.
But the French program, and its state-owned developer, operator, and distributor, has been in a long slow decline. Electricite de France (EDF) has seen its nuclear power fortunes slide. Only one new plant is under construction, Flamanville 3, which is using a new PWR design. That project has encountered serious problems. It is vastly over its original budget and more than a decade behind schedule. Originally projected to be operating in 2012 at a cost of $3.4 billion, it is now projected to start up in 2023 at a cost of more than $13 billion.
The New York Times commented, “The announcement represented an about-face for Mr. Macron, who had previously pledged to reduce France’s reliance on nuclear power but has pivoted to burnishing an image as a pronuclear president battling climate change as he faces a tough re-election bid in April.”
Macron billed the nuclear plan as France’s path to cut greenhouse gas emissions cut imports of foreign energy. The once-ambitious French nuclear program began in 1974, in the face of the first Arab oil embargo. The country embarked on a path of construction PWR’s, based on a design from Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse.
Macron’s new-found enthusiasm contrasts with that of Germany, once also a major nuclear developer, led by Siemens, with its own PWR boiling water designs from Kraftwerk Union (KWU). Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkle, Germany began shutting down its 17-reactor fleet. The final plant is set for closure at the end of this year.
Macron’s nuclear move is not entirely about climate issues. Politics is in play. Macron is up for reelection this year, with the first round of voting April 10. There is a long list of declared candidates. If no one has a majority in the first round, the top two face off April 24.
According to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, there also is a geopolitical aspect to the policy. CNBC reported that when asked about geopolitics, Le Maire said, “Of course, the changes in the geopolitical landscape played a key role.”
Bailing out troubled EDF is also part of the motivation for the plan, Le Maire acknowledged. According to Reuters, he said “he was sure that EDF’s difficulties would ‘disappear’ after France announced plans to build at least six new nuclear reactors in the decades to come.” He said the Macron plan would cement EDF’s future for the next 50 years.
Predictably, anti-nuclear groups attacked the Macron plan. Greenpeace France campaigner Nicholas Nace said, “This is a crucial decision that would engage France for centuries in terms of the hazardous waste that nuclear facilities produce. There has been no real democratic debate about this — just a candidate making opportunistic declarations.”
–Kennedy Maize
(kenmaize@gmail.com)