Should France build six new EPRs or 14? For the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, the answer seems obvious: even if our country needs to invest enormously in its electricity production capacities – we are talking about 30 new conventional reactors necessary by 2050 to maintaining a fleet worthy of the name, which would take into account the advanced aging of many power plants – we must remain realistic. EDF, in its current situation, will have many difficulties building the first six EPRs.
The boss of Bercy underlined just a few days ago “the gigantic scale” of the upcoming project, “in a sector which unfortunately has experienced ups and downs, has been too often singled out, which has lost a lot of skills and who must now rebuild themselves. But this speech seems too pessimistic for Emmanuel Macron. During his press conference on June 12, the Head of State reiterated his objective of reaching 14 EPR. A “strong” decision, essential for the ecological transition. Does the president have information on the state of the sector that his minister does not have?
Nope. “This announcement, more tactical than anything else, deliberately ignores the many challenges that EDF faces in terms of workforce, financial resources and deadlines. It is obvious that it is mainly a question of a campaign strategy in the difficult context of early legislative elections, because the question of relaunching the national nuclear fleet remains very popular with the majority of voters”, estimates Franck Gbaguidi, director of sustainable development at the Eurasia Group research firm.
Behind the scenes, many experts continue to question the president’s nuclear fiber. “I will always blame him for not having prevented the closure of Fessenheim, thus depriving France, for ideological reasons, of a high-power reactor when it could still operate, with some investment,” underlines one of them. ‘between them. “In any case, during the 2022 presidential election, Emmanuel Macron had already made the move to announce new EPRs,” remarks Franck Gbaguidi. The string is a bit big, but in the current political chaos, any voice is welcome.