The Penly power plant, in Normandy, is expected to accommodate the latest generation EPR reactors.
The Minister of the Economy goes Friday morning to the Penly power plant, located in Petit-Caux in Seine-Maritime, in order to “make an inventory of the works for the reactivation of the reactors“, we specify in Bercy. Bruno Le Maire will be accompanied by Luc Rémont, newly appointed head of EDF, which operates the two reactors of the plant. An exchange with employees and their representatives is also on the Minister’s programme.
This trip dedicated to nuclear will be an opportunity to “recall the commitments made by the government concerning the major challenges of the sector“, specifies the press release. The Penly power plant is expected to accommodate third-generation reactors, better known by the acronym EPR. Emmanuel Macron had made a commitment during the last presidential campaign to build six new EPR 2s by 2035. To do this, a bill to accelerate nuclear power was tabled in Parliament on November 2 and should be debated early next year.
On the eve of this visit, Thursday, December 8, 18 of the 56 French nuclear reactors were still shut down for maintenance or repairs, while cooling temperatures in the coming days raised fears of tensions on the electricity network. Reactor number 3 of the Dampierre power plant must restart Friday morning, instead of Monday. Another reactor, Bugey 3, is due to restart on Saturday morning, which will reduce the number of unavailable reactors to 16 and increase the number of reactors in operation to 40 on Monday’s crucial day.
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