France has more grandiose plans for building nuclear reactors, but has no renewable energy targets.

France outstrips plans, to build additional nuclear plants beyond six

DAILY SABAH, BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE – PARIS JAN 07, 2024

France is set to build eight new nuclear plants on top of six already announced, the energy minister has said, arguing more reactors are needed to hit carbon reduction targets.

A draft law set to be presented soon recognizes that “we will need nuclear power beyond the six first European Pressurized Reactors” (EPRs) announced by President Emmanuel Macron in early 2022, Agnes Pannier-Runacher told Sunday’s edition of the weekly newspaper Tribune Dimanche.

The bill will include a further eight plants that had until now been discussed as an “option” by the government, Pannier-Runacher said.

By contrast, the text would not include any targets for renewable energy generation by 2030, remaining “technologically neutral,” she added………………………………………………..

Pannier-Runacher suggested that the construction of even more than 14 nuclear reactors could be raised in talks with lawmakers once the energy bill reaches Parliament.

State energy firm EDF’s next-generation EPR has had a rocky start.

Three are online, one in Finland and two in China, after suffering massive construction delays and cost overruns that have also beset projects in Britain and France.

The first EPR in France, at Flamanville in Normandy, is set to come online for testing in mid-2024, EDF said last month – 17 years after construction started and at a cost of 12.7 billion euros ($13.9 billion), around four times the initial budget of 3.3 billion. more https://www.dailysabah.com/business/energy/france-outstrips-plans-to-build-additional-nuclear-plants-beyond-six

January 9, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, politics