Five years ago in Alsace, the first reactor of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant stopped turning. We then talked about the end of an era … until the War in Ukraine And awareness of ecological emergency rebuild the cards. Between energy sovereignty, limited resources and influence issues, challenges around the nuclear are in size. In this third episode, one wonders if the revival announced by Emmanuel Macron will go to the end. Explanations from Sébastien Julian, of the L’Express climate service.
Episode 3: A sparkle relaunch
Orange cap on the head and safety glasses on the nose, at the start of 2025, Emmanuel Macron visits a factory in the north of France, more precisely in Maubeuge. The President of the Republic comes to take stock of two pacts signed in 2018 and 2021 to reindustrialize the territory. And the place was not chosen at random. The head of state is in a Framatome factory, specialized in the maintenance of nuclear equipment. After wandering, it is aimed at group employees.
The renaissance of French nuclear: this is what Emmanuel Macron came to boast. He then referred to the recovery plan announced in February 2022 in Belfort, while the future of the atom in France seemed uncertain.
It has been reorganizing three years now, it hires, it built. But at the same time, the difficulties accumulate: too expensive, too slow, not planned enough … The revival of the French nuclear does not seem to hold all its promises.
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“The atomic challenges” is an original series of the magnifying glass, the daily podcast of L’Express, presented by Charlotte Baris, written and mounted by Solène Alifat and produced by Jules Krot.
Credits : BFMTV, Europe 1, France 24, INA, La Voix du Nord, TF1
Music and dressing: Emmanuel Herschon/Studio Torrent
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To go further:
Calogena, future nuclear mini-reactors champion? “The best project in France is us!”
Nuclear: “The profitability of EPRs should not fall to zero”
Energy policy: “We run to disaster if we continue as if nothing had happened”