For candidate LR, visiting the Bugey power plant, in Ain, Emmanuel Macron’s energy policy is “a disaster”. In particular, it promises a reflection on the construction of new EPRs.
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For Valérie Pécresse, Les Républicains presidential candidate, the head of state has it all wrong about nuclear power: “We have an energy policy from Emmanuel Macron which is taking us straight into the wall. We are facing a real energy catastrophe: it is that we no longer have the assurance of being supplied and that the prices of energy fly away.” A criticism formulated during a campaign trip to the Bugey (Ain) power plant, Saturday January 29, the oldest French nuclear site in operation.
Why continue to close nuclear reactors if their safety is not in question? Valérie Pécresse wants to keep them operational as long as possible but also invest: “We must have a Gaullian recovery plan for energy, relaunch nuclear production with six EPRs [réacteur nucélaire de troisième génération] by 2035 and for 2050 the reflection on the other EPRs”.
>>> Safety, cost, new EPRs… We checked the claims of six presidential candidates on nuclear power
The president of the Île-de-France region also wants renewable energies, but she believes that this will never be enough in the face of rising electricity consumption. By the way, Valérie Pécresse also curbs the executive on her choice to ask EDF to lower the bills of the French: “The government has brought this very large company to its knees by taking the money it needs to make the investments out of its revenues.”
The “rescue” of EDF is one of the first missions that candidate LR wants to entrust to her future Prime Minister, if she is elected president.
Valérie Pécresse at the Bugey nuclear power plant: report by Audrey Tison
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