nuclear-news

What of the nuclear industry’s future in France now?

Le Monde 8th Sept 2018 ,[Machine translation] It’s a low-noise battle that took place for a year
between Nicolas Hulot and EDF, a company he was in charge of. On the one
hand, a minister who has not always been antinuclear, but who has become
convinced in recent years that this energy has no future.

On the other hand, the management of EDF, Bercy and the entire French nuclear industry –
its 220,000 employees, its engineers and its weight in the heart of the
state -, convinced that nuclear power remains an opportunity for the La
France. Between the two,

Emmanuel Macron, long-time proponent of the
nuclear, but which maintains on this subject a policy of “at the same
time”, which for a long time allowed him to provide support to the
partisans and the opponents to the atom. Two questions are quickly at the
heart of this step of two: how to succeed in reducing the share of nuclear
energy in the production of electricity from 75% to 50%? And should we
start in France the construction of new reactors to eventually replace the
current fleet? The answer depends on one essential element: will
electricity consumption increase in the coming years, as EDF argues, or
will it continue to stagnate?
https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2018/09/08/nucleaire-dans-les-coulisses-de-la-bataille-entre-hulot-et-edf_5352068_3234.html

September 10, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general