In search of low-carbon electricity, the French government is specifying the map of its new nuclear fleet. He had already identified two of the three locations, in Penly (Seine-Maritime) and Gravelines (North), to install six future high-power reactors. The third is now known. It is, as for the other two, a site already hosting a power plant: Bugey, in Ain. It was in competition with another site in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, that of Tricastin, in the Drôme, on a proposal from EDF, operator of the current fleet. The Elysée announced the decision after a nuclear policy council convened by the Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, on Wednesday July 19.
“The Bugey site is more ready than the Tricastin site, for which additional studies must be carried out, explains the office of the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. It is therefore a rational choice to keep the calendar. » Cooled by water from the Rhône, the Bugey nuclear power plant is located in the town of Saint-Vulbas, about forty kilometers from Lyon. It has the four oldest reactors still in service in the country.
The construction sites for these six EPR 2 (English acronym for “European pressurized reactors”) have not yet started. Ideally, EDF foresees commissioning from 2035 for the first pair at Penly, from 2038 for the second at Gravelines, and from 2042 for the third pair at Bugey. With this site, “the location of the first phase of the EPR 2 construction program has now been decided”underlines, in a press release, the Presidency of the Republic.
In addition to the first six EPR 2s in the country, announced in February 2022, the government is considering the possibility of building another eight. “Technical studies and analyzes will continue on the Tricastin site with a view to hosting future nuclear reactors”specifies the Elysée. “We are ready”reacted the president (Les Républicains) of the departmental council of Drôme, Marie-Pierre Mouton.
On June 28, even though “the law does not currently provide for the deployment of EPRs outside existing sites”, Emmanuel Macron had gone so far as to consider reactors between Marseille and Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône). ” We are in a submersible zone, in a seismic zone. If there is a place in France where we will not be able to make an EPR, it is in Marseilles”, had replied the mayor (ex-Socialist Party) of the city, Benoît Payan.
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