For the Minister of Energy Transition, the government’s major nuclear acceleration project must not be hindered by “procedures”.
SourceAFP
© NICOLAS LIPONNE / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
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To the day before the vote on a bill on the acceleration of nuclear power in the Senate, the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, judged in an interview for Le Figaro that the ambitions of the government justified the vote of “exceptional measures”. The bill notably provides for the construction of six new EPRs by 2035-3037. “The procedures must not stand in the way of the industrial project”, pleaded the minister.
“The construction of six new EPRs is the largest industrial project launched in France since the 1970s and one of the largest in the world today. Our legislation was not designed for these kinds of projects. This justifies exceptional measures, as there were for the Olympic Games, “said Ms. Pannier-Runacher to the Figaro, in an interview published Monday, January 16 in the evening. “Procedures must not stand in the way of the industrial project. Winning one or two years, maybe more, that counts, ”added the minister, who must defend this text simplifying administrative procedures from Tuesday in the upper house of Parliament.
“We can’t waste a minute”
A majority of senators are in favor of it, even if some have deplored that it arrives before the energy programming bill, fixing the trajectories of France in each energy, and hoped for June.
“We already know that we will have to consume much less energy and produce much more on our territory, if we want to get out of fossil fuels which represent two thirds of the energy we consume (…) We cannot not waste a minute to produce more. And that is the purpose of these texts,” added the minister, also referring to the bill on the acceleration of renewable energies.
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Six new EPR reactors by 2037
President Emmanuel Macron has announced his intention to build six new reactors and wants studies to be launched for eight others. The start of construction of the first is scheduled for 2027 for commissioning by 2035-2037. While the Flamanville EPR has accumulated delays – it should enter service in mid-2024, 12 years after the initial objective – and saw its cost quadruple to 13.2 billion euros, Ms Pannier-Runacher also defended the technology of the EPR2, a new generation reactor, which “seems to be the best choice”.
“What we are asking EDF and the sector for this historic program is to offer us a robust reactor, whose mass construction will allow standardization, not a technological gem designed for science! “, remarked the minister.
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