France to expand nuclear pwr capacity

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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From Reuters:

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/macron-bets-nuclear-…

PARIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) - France will build at least six new nuclear reactors in the decades to come, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, placing nuclear power at the heart of his country’s drive for carbon neutrality by 2050.

Macron said the new plants would be built and operated by state-controlled energy provider EDF (EDF.PA) and that tens of billions of euros in public financing would be mobilized to finance the projects and safeguard EDF’s finances.

“What our country needs, and the conditions are there, is the rebirth of France’s nuclear industry,” Macron said, unveiling his new nuclear strategy in the eastern industrial town of Belfort.

More, from World Nuclear News, if you are interested…

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Macron-announces…

France will soon have a presidential election, so a new president could derail these plans. But right now, it looks promising for France to maintain its very low carbon electricity system.

  • Pete
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Do I remember correctly, or some time back didn’t France announce that they were scaling back, and not so long ago?

(The new going ahead pronouncement is a good direction, IMAO, but…)

Wider ranging question(s):
To my knowledge, France has NEVER had a nuclear ‘incident’.

AFIK, they get their power from >50% nuclear.

Plus, evidently, they have a handle on the disposal of waste fuel.

Whatever they’re doing, shouldn’t the US (ET AL) emulate?

Big fan here of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Generally, not a fan of French ‘technology’***, but it seems logical to drill down on their nuclear implementations.

(***Michelin tires are also solid; haven’t bought anything but Michelin for over 60 years, FWIW. Hundreds of thousands of miles on their tires.)

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Pete:“France will soon have a presidential election, so a new president could derail these plans. But right now, it looks promising for France to maintain its very low carbon electricity system.”

And not dependent upon Russian Natural Gas like Germany where it provides 50% of the power generation /home and industrial heating and manufacturing.

t.

4 Likes
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Do I remember correctly, or some time back didn’t France announce that they were scaling back, and not so long ago?

The previous president, Francois Hollande, had a plan to cut France’s nuclear power generation to 50%, from the current 70% or so. In some political maneuvering, Macron had initially agreed to follow with Hollande’s reduction plan, but that now seems to be old history. France did close two plants near the German border because they made the Germans nervous. France is still building a new large EPR plant at Flamanville, which has been delayed, but is progressing.

To my knowledge, France has NEVER had a nuclear ‘incident’.

Nothing like Chernobyl or even Three Mile Island, but there have been a few minor incidents, which are always blown way out of proportion by the media and the nuclear power haters.

AFIK, they get their power from >50% nuclear.

It is around 70%, but that number may be going down as France builds more renewable solar and wind capacity. The renewables are expensive, as exemplified by the experience in Germany. But it may be good to diversify the electric generation portfolio, at least somewhat.

Plus, evidently, they have a handle on the disposal of waste fuel.

France reprocesses much of its nuclear fuel, so that helps cut down on the volume of waste (which is pretty small to begin with). I don’t believe they have a permanent disposal solution selected, but the waste isn’t causing any huge problems where it is.

Household electricity prices in France are somewhat less than most of its immediate neighbors (Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy). The eastern European countries, including the Baltics, are mostly lower in price, but many of those countries are still burning lots of coal.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php…

  • Pete
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To my knowledge, France has NEVER had a nuclear ‘incident’.

Nothing like Chernobyl or even Three Mile Island, but there have been a few minor incidents, which are always blown way out of proportion by the media and the nuclear power haters.

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A list of French nuclear accidents and incidents can be found at the following link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France#:~:tex….

The 1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant flood took place on the evening of December 27, 1999. It was caused when a combination of the tide and high winds from the extratropical storm Martin led to the seawalls of the Blayais Nuclear Power Plant in France being overwhelmed. The event resulted in the loss of the plant’s off-site power supply and knocked out several safety-related systems, resulting in a Level 2 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The incident illustrated the potential for flooding to damage multiple items of equipment throughout a plant, weaknesses in safety measures, systems and procedures, and resulted in fundamental changes to the evaluation of flood risk at nuclear power plants and in the precautions taken. It was in a forerunner of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accidents in Japan, but did not trigger the worldwide protection work on low-lying plants that the latter would.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Blayais_Nuclear_Power_Pla…

Jaak

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Whatever they’re doing, shouldn’t the US (ET AL) emulate?

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Are you saying that all nuclear plants in the US should be owned by the federal government like in France and operated by a giant government owned utility like EDF?

Jaak

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PARIS, Feb 10 (Reuters) - France will build at least six new nuclear reactors in the decades to come, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, placing nuclear power at the heart of his country’s drive for carbon neutrality by 2050.

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The announcement comes at a difficult time for debt-laden EDF, which is facing delays and budget over-runs on new nuclear plants in France and Britain, and corrosion problems in some of its ageing reactors.

EDF estimates the cost of six new reactors at about 50 billion euros ($57.36 billion), depending on financing conditions. The first new reactor, an evolution of the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), would come online by 2035.

EDF’s EPR reactors have suffered a troubled history. EPR projects at Flamanville in France and Hinkley Point in Britain are running years behind schedule and billions over budget, while EPR reactors in China and Finland have been hit by technical issues.

EDF this week revised lower its output forecast for its nuclear fleet to 295-315 TWh compared with 361 TWh last year, in part due to extended reactor shutdowns due to corrosion problems in several reactors.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/macron-bets-nuclear-…

Jaak

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Are you saying that all nuclear plants in the US should be owned by the federal government like in France and operated by a giant government owned utility like EDF?

Not sure if this is a good idea or not. But the US Navy has built and operated hundreds of nuclear reactors without a major incident over the last 60 years.
There was one major incident back in the 1950s with a US Army reactor (SL-1)

Mike

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But the US Navy has built and operated hundreds of nuclear reactors without a major incident over the last 60 years.

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Except for the lost nuclear subs Thresher and Scorpion.

Jaak