French election: Macron and Le Pen’s nuclear plans torn apart: ‘Waste of time AND money’

FRENCH presidential hopefuls Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen have unveiled ambitious plans to boost France’s nuclear power capacity – already at 70 percent of its domestic electricity generation – but experts have questioned the feasibility.

By IAN RANDALL, , Apr 24, 2022  

The recent emphasis on large-scale nuclear reactors is, at least superficially, seemingly at odds with President Macron’s announcement late last year that France would be investing in so-called small modular reactor designs as part of his “France 2020” roadmap.

………………   Of the strategy’s allocated €30billion (£25.2billion) budget, €8billion (£6.7 billion) is to be apportioned towards the development of hydrogen power, compared with just €1billion (£0.8billion) towards small-scale reactor concepts.

Despite this funding disparity, however, Mr Macron asserted that the realisation of the small modular reactors was in fact “goal number one”…………………………….   https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1600032/french-election-energy-macron-le-pen-grand-nuclear-plans

April 25, 2022 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, politics