It took a war at the gates of Europe for the question of France’s sovereignty and energy independence to once again become a priority subject. So that France finally stops being ashamed of its nuclear model and announces a little over a year ago the relaunch of its program with the construction of at least six new EPR reactors. It was high time because the French atom sector has been wrung out of decades of renunciations, reversals, political cowardice and shaky compromises. How did we come to this? Internal industrial wars like the one that opposed for years two French giants, EDF and Areva, partly explain this rout. But also political, geopolitical, ideological and technological battles that supporters of the atom have often lost. L’Express tells the story in five episodes of a French bankruptcy.
EPISODE 1 >> Nuclear, a French bankruptcy: the cessation of the Astrid project, “a historic error”
EPISODE 2 >> Nuclear, a French bankruptcy: how the United States won the “Polish file”
EPISODE 3 >> Nuclear, a French bankruptcy: EDF and the ball and chain of opening up to competition
EPISODE 4 >> Nuclear, a French bankruptcy: the merger between ASN and IRSN, a missed opportunity
Lately, signs of fatigue have been appearing on the faces of European diplomats. Certainly, we are very far from the hysteria of Brexit. But a heavy and electric air floats in the maze of corridors of the European Commission and Parliament in Brussels. At the center of the game, the two heavyweights of the Union, France and Germany. In a low voice, one of the negotiators from the shadows confides: “Today there is a nuclear aspect in almost all subjects. And the exchanges between the different camps, in particular between Paris and Berlin, are turning into a religious war. It gets really complicated.”
Last skirmish to date: France’s volte-face concerning the new European directive on renewable energies has provoked a great anger from the German government. It had taken weeks of discussions and Byzantine quarrels to reach a consensus on this text, which sets out a very ambitious target: to increase the share of renewable energies in the Union’s total energy consumption to 42.5% by 2030, compared to 22% on average today. But the devil is in the details. There, it is hydrogen and the conditions of manufacture of this gas widely used in industry that made everything go wrong. Germany only has eyes for green hydrogen produced from green electricity, i.e. solar or wind power. While France is advancing the map of low-carbon hydrogen made from electricity of nuclear origin. Behind this quarrel, it is indeed two visions of the energy future of Europe which oppose each other. “The Franco-German engine is completely seized up. Nuclear power presses on one of the most sensitive points. It’s a real problem for Europe”, despairs Bas Eickhout, a Dutch Green deputy, specialist in questions of energy.
In this cock fight, everyone wants to impose their model and all shots are allowed. After decades of shameful nuclear, France finally assumes its model. On the other side of the Rhine, Germany is paralyzed by the survival of its industry, badly shaken by its dependence on Russian gas, and takes a dim view of the advantage that France could derive from abundant nuclear energy. and cheap. “If relations between the two countries are so tense, it is because the balance is shifting,” comments Eric-André Martin, head of the study committee for Franco-German relations at Ifri.
However, Germany has not always been at war with the atom. From the 1960s, the country built 44 reactors, making it the second largest European nuclear fleet behind France. The beginnings of the EPR are even Franco-German since the engineering of the control command of the reactor, a centerpiece, is entrusted to the giant Siemens. But culturally, civilian nuclear power, like military, has always terrified public opinion across the Rhine. In 2002, a law provides for the gradual exit from nuclear power under pressure from the German Greens. But it was after the Fukushima disaster in 2011 that Angela Merkel, driven by a purely political agenda, decided on the definitive closure of the power stations by 2022. A decision which irrigated in France the idea that nuclear is an energy of the past. “I took part in dozens of meetings at the Ministry of the Environment where successive ministers, from Delphine Batho to Nicolas Hulot via Barbara Pompili had only one idea in mind: to copy the German model”, recalls Yves Bréchet, the former high commissioner for atomic energy.
This spring, during the hearings of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the reasons for France’s loss of energy sovereignty, some were let go. Like Henri Proglio, the ex-boss of EDF, launching in front of a flabbergasted assembly: “The obsession of the Germans for thirty years, it is the disintegration of EDF. They succeeded!”. “I am wary of this Germanophobia which serves as a cache-sex for our own errors”, answers Antoine Armand, deputy (Renaissance) and rapporteur of this commission of inquiry.
In the meantime, the evidence of German lobbying must be sought in Brussels. “They are extremely well established, their deputies work, they have important positions in the committees that count and it pays,” recognizes Christophe Grudler, a French MEP (MoDem), member of the energy committee in Parliament. The great German victory of recent years: taxonomy, which classifies energies according to their impact on the environment. The Germans firmly refused that the atom be placed among the renewable energies, even if it does not emit greenhouse gases. It took a codicil added at the last minute for nuclear to be ranked alongside gas among the transition energies. Problem, this classification directly influences the subsidies and aid from which a sector can benefit. Similarly, Berlin has gone out of its way to ensure that nuclear energy is not included in the list of energies eligible for the “Just Transition Fund”, a European fund that helps regions wishing to get rid of coal. Even within Euratom, the European body responsible for coordinating nuclear research, Germany’s touch is visible even in the selected projects. Since there is a unanimous vote, Berlin only supports research programs on waste treatment and safety. Nothing on next-generation reactors.
In Fessenheim, where work to dismantle the plant has already begun, the battle is not over. “The German representatives who are members of the local supervisory committee have been opposing EDF’s project for two years to set up a plant for the reprocessing of irradiated metals on the site”, annoys Raphaël Schellenberger, the deputy (LR) of Haut -Rhine. As if ideology had prevailed over reason.