In this episode of La Loupe, Xavier Yvon reviews the challenges of French nuclear power with Béatrice Mathieu, senior Economy reporter at L’Express, and Sébastien Julien, head of the Climate and Transition section.
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The team: Xavier Yvon (presentation and writing), Mathias Penguilly (editing), Jules Krot (directing) and Marion Galard (work-study).
Credits: National Assembly
Music and dressing: Emmanuel Herschon/Studio Torrent
Picture credits: Sebastien Berda/AFP
Logo: Anne-Laure Chapelain/Benjamin Chazal
How to listen to a podcast? Follow the leader.
Xavier Yvon: You may have understood it by listening to La Loupe: I really like TV games, like “Question for a champion” or “Who wants to be a millionaire”. I’ve already made you play with us to find the title of one of our episodes or guess the name of a character. And I’m going to put you to work again for this beginning of the podcast, with a riddle.
Which country should today, in the midst of the global energy crisis, be nicknamed “the Saudi Arabia of nuclear power?” The formula should speak to the most loyal listeners of La Loupe. I used it last fall in a triple episode on EDF. The country in question is therefore France with its 56 nuclear reactors which, if they were running at full capacity, would today make it an “electric oasis”, another colorful expression used during this series, in which we explained how bankruptcies of EDF had plagued the French nuclear industry.
Our country is therefore not the “Saudi Arabia of nuclear power” but it has not given up on becoming one. This is precisely the purpose of the revival of the sector wanted by Emmanuel Macron, at a time when the war in Ukraine raises the question of energy sovereignty.
EDF is in the process of being renationalised, but there are still many obstacles: it will be necessary both to succeed in the technological shift and to resist the countries which do not want to see France become the Mecca of the atom (I know, that’s a lot cliché formulas) and these are all the challenges that we are looking at today.
For further
PODCAST. What is nuclear fusion? The Express explains everything
Nuclear, a French bankruptcy: how the United States won the “Polish file”
Yves Bréchet: “Lies around nuclear power have been brought to light. Now we have to act!”
Energy independence: those who put France in the ditch, by Sylvain Fort