For Yves Marignac, nuclear critical expert and spokesperson for the negaWatt association, the announcements of the President of the Republic on nuclear power will put “years before they eventually find a concrete translation”. He reacts to the speech of the head of state on Tuesday evening. Among the announcements, the relaunch of the construction of nuclear reactors, of the EPR 2 type. Emmanuel Macron considers that it is a means of “guarantee the energy independence of France” and “to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.”
franceinfo: Regarding these announcements on nuclear power, the President of the Republic did not mention a timetable, nor provide more details on the number of reactors. Does it take time to build reactors?
Yves Marignac: This is a vague and problematic announcement since it comes at the very moment when the RTE report tells us that choices are opening up between relaunching reactors or a 100% renewable trajectory. This is a very vague announcement for good reasons. These EPR 2 reactors are only in a preliminary design phase. It will take years before validating their design, years afterwards to develop an operational version to be implemented on sites of your choice. This will obviously require the necessary debates and public inquiries. This announcement has an important effect but it will be years before it eventually finds a concrete translation.
Are these new reactors more difficult to build than reactors already in operation?
EPR-type reactors like the one at Flamanville are very difficult to build today. This will also be the case for EPR 2, this new model, in particular given their size. However, EDF seeks to reduce these difficulties by simplifying the design and cutting back on certain safety options. The future will tell us whether the Nuclear Safety Authority validates all these simplifications and whether they bring the gains in terms of construction time and cost that EDF hopes.
“For the moment, we must maintain the greatest caution vis-à-vis these projections.”
Yves Marignac, nuclear critical expertto franceinfo
There is also the problem of waste management. This is one of the blind spots in the current discussion on nuclear power and on the projections that the President of the Republic seems to be making. We are today in a situation where spent fuel accumulates, the swimming pools of La Hague are in the process of saturation. Other elements accumulate such as plutonium from reprocessing. The question of whether the next reactors will pursue this path of accumulating materials or not is obviously fundamental. For the moment, in the design of EPR 2, there is nothing new in this field, on the contrary, they are not intended to reuse these materials. He therefore leaves this question of the enormous accumulated stock without any prospect of use or elimination.
The French nuclear fleet is dilapidated, or it will be. To continue producing electricity, you have to choose between betting everything on renewable sources or building new reactors?
This is how Emmanuel Macron wants to put the equation. It is in line with his plan “France 2030”, he has set the objective for the country to produce more, without specifying what the purpose of this production is. This objective is contrary to the limits which we come up against, whether in terms of use of materials, biodiversity, land use. We can clearly see that there is behind a productivist software which calls for ever more production which must be carbon-free since it is necessary to face the climate emergency. It is this equation which leads to say that we obviously need renewables and perhaps also nuclear power, it ignores the main lever in front of us to control what is coming, that is say the need for massive reinvestment in our electricity system linked to this aging of the existing nuclear fleet. The main lever we have is controlling energy consumption. This will make it possible to reduce investment volumes, reduce the impact on household and business bills, and increase the acceptability of this new equipment. The more we go in this priority to energy control, the less nuclear is necessary.