French Minister of Energy Transition, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, announced yesterday (Sunday) that France intends to build 8 new nuclear plants in addition to 6 previously announced, to achieve carbon emissions reduction goals.
Agnes Pannier-Runacher explained to the French newspaper that a draft law scheduled to be presented soon estimates that France will need nuclear energy beyond the first six European reactors operating with pressurized water that President Emmanuel Macron announced at the beginning of the year 2022.
She indicated that the draft law would include 8 new nuclear plants, which the government has discussed so far as an option it could resort to.
The minister pointed out that the historic nuclear fleet will not last forever.
France seeks to reduce the share of fossil fuels in energy use from more than 60% currently to 40% in 2035, which will require building more facilities, whose capacity is equivalent to 13 gigawatts of energy starting in 2026.
France aims to build 8 nuclear plants
France aims to reduce fossil fuels’ share of energy use from more than 60 percent now to 40 percent in 2035, which would require “further construction equivalent to 13 gigawatts” of energy from 2026, Pannier-Runacher said.
That matches “the power of eight EPR reactors, without setting in stone any particular technology”, the minister added.
Pannier-Runacher suggested that the construction of even more than 14 nuclear reactors could be raised in talks with lawmakers once the energy bill reaches Parliament.
State energy firm EDF’s next-generation EPR has had a rocky start.
Three are online, one in Finland and two in China, after suffering massive construction delays and cost overruns that have also beset projects in Britain and France.
The first EPR in France, at Flamanville in Normandy, is set to come online for testing in mid-2024, EDF said last month — 17 years after construction started and for 12.7 billion euros ($13.9 billion), around four times the initial budget of 3.3 billion.
Also Read: https://usateller.com/german-foreign-minister-to-tour-middle-east/
Comments 2