Reporterre 11th Dec 2018 Claiming to ” recycle ” used nuclear fuel, the reprocessing industry complicates the management of waste by increasing the amount of plutonium and hazardous materials.
Most countries engaged in this dead-end way come out … but not France.
According to the official communication, the reprocessing does not generate
contamination, only ” authorized discharges ” . They are spit by the
chimneys, dumped at the end of a pipe buried in the Channel.
In reality, according to the independent expert Mycle Schneider, ” the plant is
authorized to reject 20,000 times more radioactive rare gases and more than
500 times the amount of liquid tritium that only one of the Flamanville
reactors located 15 km away. ” . It contributes ” almost half to the
radiological impact of all civilian nuclear installations in Europe ” .
https://reporterre.net/Comment-la-France-multiplie-les-dechets-nucleaires-dangereux
December 13, 2018
Posted by Christina MacPherson |
France, Reference, reprocessing, wastes |
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Futurism, 13 Dec 18 The French government just announced a plan to power 95 percent of the country with solar and wind energy by 2060. And by doing so, the government would spend about $44.5 billion (39 billion euros) less than it would if it maintained its current energy infrastructure.
To get there, the government would need to cancel plans to construct 15 new nuclear power plants, and instead replace its aging nuclear reactors with renewable infrastructure over the next several decades, according to a new report published Monday by the French environmental agency.
The report details how France could increase its dependence on solar and wind energy over time, gradually shutting down nuclear power plants to make room for renewables.
But doing so will still be costly: the report suggests that developing these new power plants as well as the necessary infrastructure to support them will cost the government $1.45 trillion (1.28 trillion euros) over the next 42 years. That’s a huge investment, but it’s still much cheaper than maintaining the status quo and replacing the country’s aging nuclear power plants with more modernized reactors…….. https://futurism.com/the-byte/nuclear-plants-renewable-energy-france
December 13, 2018
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France, renewable |
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Building new nuclear plants in France uneconomical -environment agency https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL8N1YF5HCGeert De Clercq, DECEMBER 11, 2018
State environment agency contradicts Macron on new nuclear
* New nuclear reactors would be structurally loss-making
* Renewables could account for 85 pct of power mix by 2050.
Building new nuclear reactors in France would not be economical, state environment agency ADEME said in a study on Monday, contradicting the government’s long-term energy strategy as well as state-owned utility EDF’s investment plans.
In a speech last month, President Emmanuel Macron said nuclear energy would remain a promising technology for producing low-cost, low-carbon energy and that EDF’s EPR reactor model should be part of future energy options.
Macron has also asked EDF to draw up a plan for building new reactors with a view to making a decision about nuclear in 2021
Two EPR reactors under construction in France and Finland are years behind schedule and billions of euros over budget.
“The development of an EPR-based nuclear industry would not be competitive,” ADEME said, adding that new nuclear plants would be structurally loss-making. bit.ly/2GlEbcT
Building a single EPR in 2030 would require 4 to 6 billion euros of subsidies, while building a fleet of 15 with a total capacity of 24 gigawatt-hour by 2060 would cost the state 39 billion euros, despite economies of scale that could bring down the EPR costs to 70 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), ADEME said.
Renewables costs could fall to between 32 and 80 euros/MWh, depending on the technology, by 2060.
But extending the existing fleet too long, while also building new EPRs, would lead to overcapacity, compromising returns on all generation assets, including renewables.
EDF – which generates about 75 percent of French electricity with 58 nuclear reactors – declined to comment.
The ADEME report, which studied energy mix scenarios for 2020-2060, said renewables could account for 85 percent of power generation by 2050 and more than 95 percent by 2060, except if the government pushes through the EPR option anyway.
The gradual increase of renewables capacity could reduce the pre-tax electricity cost for consumers – including generation, grids and storage – to about 90 euros per MWh, compared to nearly 100 euros today, ADEME said.
ADEME director Arnaud Leroy, appointed in February, helped write the energy chapter of Macron’s election programme and was a spokesman for his campaign, but the agency is independent and earlier studies have also contradicted government energy policy.
In 2015, a ADEME study suggesting that France could switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 at a cost similar to sticking with nuclear was barred from publication for months by the government. reut.rs/2RLGKG8 (Reporting by Geert De Clercq; editing by David Evans)
December 11, 2018
Posted by Christina MacPherson |
business and costs, France, politics |
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Backstory: Macron To Close Multiple Nuclear Reactors, But Why Now? https://cleantechnica.com/2018/11/30/backstory-macron-to-close-multiple-nuclear-reactors-but-why-now/?fbclid=IwAR0tO9BXT4FaNEuhnwexaC6cf4V6jj6cJLnQeiZPdA91t7SrrmL5n7xtRHg November 30th, 2018 by Michael Barnard
President Emmanuel Macron of France depressed nuclear executives globally in late November 2018, announcing the planned retirement of 14 of 58 reactors by 2035. This was still less than was promised in his election campaign, but represents a major internal political battle, as well as a major change of France’s circumstances.
This has been an emerging story for several years.
France did a better job than most of building nuclear plants. They picked a single design and built a bunch of them over a relatively concentrated 20 years from about 1978 onward. It was a massive, state-funded, state-managed energy infrastructure initiative at a scale rarely seen. They dodged a bunch of the mistakes of other geographies somewhat by accident. They aren’t subject to earthquakes or tsunamis. They kept the technology highly standard. They developed a skilled workforce for building them and rewarded them well.
But the last nuclear reactor went live almost 20 years ago, the oldest ones are at end-of-life, and the skilled workforce only knows how to maintain and operate existing reactors now, not build new ones. The current President of France, Macron, used to be the Minister of Industry. He’s stated publicly that even he couldn’t find out how much the build-out actually cost, with the clear assertion that a bunch of actual costs were hidden.
“Nobody knows the total cost for nuclear energy,” he said. “I was minister for industry and I could not tell you.”
And France had to build nuclear to be load-following due to its over-reliance on a more usually inflexible form of generation. Nuclear is good for baseload up to 30–40%, but when it has to be turned on and off it gets a lot more expensive very quickly. France has the good fortune to have been able to export a lot of electricity to the rest of the EU for several years, but the energy mix on the continent is strongly favoring more flexible forms of generation.
And now, a few things have changed in the decades since France made its huge bet on nuclear generation in the Messmer Plan in 1974.
Renewables are dirt cheap, with Lazard’s latest figures bringing them in at 3–6 times cheaper than new nuclear. (Amusingly, Lazard still labels wind and solar as ‘alternative energy‘.) Europe is a leading geography for wind and solar, so skilled trades and supply chains all exist. Europe’s grid has strengthened and expanded over the past 30 years, so the need for a country to go it alone has diminished substantially.
The EU was founded in 1993 and France is an integral part of it, and that has two impacts. The first is that France’s energy independence policy that was part of the impetus for a massive nuclear fleet looks archaic in context of modern politics and economics. The second is that EU regulations forbid destabilizingly large governmental subsidies for energy, something which the Hinkley plant in the EU had to fight through. As Macron’s experience shows, it’s actually impossible for anyone to figure out how much any nuclear plant actually cost due to budget fudging. This last is true globally, by the way.
French attempts to build next-generation reactors are failing in multiple locations in France and elsewhere. The cost and budget overruns and construction failures are staggering.
And Chernobyl and Fukushima both happened since the French nuclear build-out began. Public support diminished substantially after those events, one on the same continent and one a world away.
France receives a greater percentage of its electricity from nuclear than any country in the world, at 72% close to 50% more than its nearest ‘competitor’, Slovakia. And it will diminish over the coming decades. Its last-built reactor will reach end-of-life in 2040 or so. It’s unlikely that it will be replaced. And it’s unlikely that more than a fraction of the aging reactors will be refurbished at all.
Wind, solar, a continent-scale grid, and open economic borders all contributed to the death of the French nuclear dream. It’s time for France to wake up and join the future, and it has. It voted in Macron, a politician who promised to reduce France’s nuclear fleet. He fought the entrenched bureaucracy and EDF, and while the new plans are slower than the promised ones, they are the right plans on a pragmatic timeline.
December 3, 2018
Posted by Christina MacPherson |
France, politics, politics international |
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ACRO 15th Nov 2018 In the event of a serious nuclear accident, France is not ready. This is
the conclusion of a study of ACRO carried out for the ANCCLI (National
Association of Committees and Local Information Commissions). Indeed, the
lessons of the Chernobyl disaster were ignored, because it was an accident
described as “Soviet”, so impossible in France. Those of the Fukushima
disaster are slow to be taken into account.
https://www.acro.eu.org/plans-durgence-nucleaire-en-france-forces-et-faiblesses/
December 3, 2018
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France, safety |
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Greenpeace France 28th Nov 2018 The “Sortir du nucléaire” network, Greenpeace France, the CRILAN and Stop
EPR-Ni in Penly and elsewhere are now filing an appeal before the Council of State to cancel the authorization given by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN). ) to commission the Flamanville EPR reactor vessel.
An authorization that should never have been granted. In 2005, ASN alerted Areva NP (now
Framatome) and EDF to bad practices at the Creusot Forges plant. Ignoring these warnings, Areva NP has still made important elements of the tank for the EPR Flamanville. As shown by the correspondence between Areva and the ASN, the manufacturer has ignored the remarks of the latter on the manufacturing processes of this equipment.
However, once the tank irreversibly installed in the reactor, Areva warned the ASN that it contained a defect calling into question its strength! After having described this anomaly as “very serious”, ASN nevertheless proposed to
Areva to introduce a request for a derogation. Despite the protests of many citizens , the Safety Authority finally gave a favorable opinion on the use of this tank.
Then, on October 10, 2018, she issued an authorization subject to the change of the lid in 2024 and additional surveillance measures. Given the problems encountered in Flamanville, it is absurd that the government continues to open the door to new reactors, with a possible decision on new projects in 2021.
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December 1, 2018
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France, Legal |
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Reuters 29th Nov 2018 , The French government has informed Japan that it plans to freeze a next
generation fast-breeder nuclear reactor project, the Nikkei business daily
reported on Thursday. Japan, which has been cooperating with Paris on the
fast-breeder development in France, has invested about 20 billion yen
($176.27 million) in the project, the report added. The French government
will halt research into the Astrid (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor
for Industrial Demonstration) project in 2019, with no plans to allocate a
budget from 2020 onwards, the report said, without citing sources.
https://www.reuters.com/article/france-nuclearpower-astrid/update-1-france-to-freeze-fast-breeder-nuclear-reactor-project-nikkei-idUSL4N1Y41OU?rpc=401&
December 1, 2018
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France, Japan, technology |
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L’usine Nouvelle 28th Nov 2018 Ongoing reflection on EDF’s structure could lead to the creation of a
public holding company at the head of two major subsidiaries, with the
group’s nuclear fleet on one side and the sale of its production on the
other a group of activities that are most concerned by the energy
transition.
EDF could be reorganized into three blocks, with a central
public holding company controlling two major subsidiaries, one dedicated to
nuclear power and the other to energy transition. The aim would be to
secure the financing and operation of the group’s power stations by
protecting them from the vagaries of the market, which would amount to
making nuclear power an “essential asset” for France, in particular to
justify the operation. to the European Commission.
December 1, 2018
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France, politics |
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FT 28th Nov 2018, If you think Britain has a tough job replacing its ageing fleet of nuclear
reactors, spare a thought for France. The world champion of atomic energy
is approaching a cliff edge in its electricity production.
The bulk of its fleet of 58 nuclear reactors was built in a remarkable 15-year burst of
construction in the 1980s and 1990s. France has not brought on stream a new
reactor for 20 years. Even if the lives of its plants were extended from 40
to 60 years, in itself an expensive proposition, 75 per cent of its nuclear
generating capacity would be gone by 2050.
The French government’s 10-year energy plan unveiled on Tuesday by President Emmanuel Macron was supposed
to set a clear framework allowing EDF, the monopoly nuclear operator, to modernise its fleet and for renewables to take a bigger slice of electricity production.
In the end, Mr Macron deferred many of the hard choices – but it was still a good result for EDF. One of the big choices was how quickly to scale back nuclear, which accounted for 71 per cent of electricity generation last year.
Environmentalists want faster decommissioning of older plants to encourage renewables. Some experts say
plants should be taken offline sooner rather than later, to avoid leaving EDF with the monumental task of decommissioning scores of them at the same time.
https://www.ft.com/content/c7421fbe-f326-11e8-9623-d7f9881e729f
December 1, 2018
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France, politics |
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L’express 29th Nov 2018 , Areva: new suspicions of corruption. Anne Lauvergeon’s former right hand
man is suspected of having received money on a contract signed by the
group. After ” atomic Anne ” – the nickname of Anne Lauvergeon, when she
was the powerful boss of the French nuclear group – “radioactive Seb”?
December 1, 2018
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France, secrets,lies and civil liberties |
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Nikkei Asian Review 30th Nov 2018 The French government has informed Japan it will halt joint development of
advanced nuclear reactors, Nikkei has learned, dealing a blow to the fuel
cycle policy underpinning much of the East Asian country’s energy plans.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/France-halts-joint-nuclear-project-in-blow-to-Japan-s-fuel-cycle
December 1, 2018
Posted by Christina MacPherson |
France, Japan, politics international |
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France to close 14 nuclear reactors by 2035 an all coal-fired power plants by 2022, The Local 28 Nov 18 President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that France would shut down 14 of the country’s 58 nuclear reactors currently in operation by 2035, of which between four and six will be closed by 2030.
The total includes the previously announced shutdown of France’s two oldest reactors in Fessenheim, eastern France, which Macron said was now set for summer 2020.
He also announced that France would close its remaining four coal-fired power plants by 2022 as part of the country’s anti-pollution efforts……
Macron said France would aim to triple its wind power electricity output by 2030, and increase solar energy output fivefold in that period.
He added that he would ask French electricity giant EDF to study the feasibility of more next-generation EPR nuclear reactors, but will wait until
2021 before deciding whether to proceed with construction.
EDF has been building the first EPR reactor at Flamanville along the Atlantic coast of northwest France — originally set to go online in 2012 — but the project has been plagued by technical problems and budget overruns. https://www.thelocal.fr/20181127/france-to-close-14-nuclear-reactors-by-2035
November 29, 2018
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France, politics |
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France could shut down nuclear plants in energy plan due next week https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-nuclearpower/france-could-shut-down-nuclear-plants-in-energy-plan-due-next-week-idUSKCN1NQ17V, PARIS (Reuters) 21 Nov 18 – France could shut down up to six nuclear reactors by 2028 among other options, French media reported, as part of its medium-term energy policy to be presented next week.
“I can confirm that there are three scenarios on the table that we are looking at, we are making final adjustments and all will be presented next week,” French Environment Minister Francois de Rugy told France Inter radio, without specifying a date.
The so-called PPE energy plan will lay out France’s energy goals over the next 10 years with the aim of reducing the share of nuclear power in its energy mix to 50 percent from 75 percent by 2035, curb carbon emissions and boost renewables.
French news agency AFP reported on Tuesday, citing government working documents, that the government could shut down up to six nuclear reactors by 2028, including the planned closure of France’s oldest Fessenheim nuclear plant which is scheduled to stop production in 2021, according to one scenario.
It said another six reactors could close by 2035, which could set France on the path to curb nuclear generation by 50 percent.
The second intermediate scenario does not foresee any additional closures beside Fessenheim until 2028, and then 12 reactors would be shutdown between 2028 and 2035, AFP quoted the document saying.
The final option would also see no additional closures until 2028 after which, only nine reactors would be halted by 2035, which could miss the 50 percent nuclear target.
Jefferies analysts, who have a “buy” rating on the shares of state-controlled utility EDF, said in a research note that two out of the three options seem to favor EDF, which operates all of France’s 58 nuclear reactors.
Even the accelerated nuclear phase-out option appears to offer some protection, via compensation, wrote Jefferies.
Reporting by Bate Felix and Mathieu Rosemain
November 22, 2018
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France, politics |
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France to cut nuclear energy reliance by 2035 – minister, Channel News Asia. 18 Nov 18 France aims to reduce the share of electricity produced by nuclear reactors to 50 percent from 75 percent now by 2035, Environment Minister Francois de Rugy said on Sunday. PARIS: France aims to reduce the share of electricity produced by nuclear reactors to 50 percent from 75 percent now by 2035, Environment Minister Francois de Rugy said on Sunday.
The French government has long outlined plans to shrink the country’s reliance on nuclear energy to 50 percent, though the deadline for that goal had remained less clear.
A long-awaited government update on France’s long-term energy strategy is expected to be released later this month, setting out in greater detail how it will cut the share of nuclear in its power generation……….
The new environment minister has said he expected there would be fewer nuclear reactors in France in 10 year’s time, though he has given few details on how many of state-owned EDF’s 58 plants will have to close.
De Rugy raised further doubts on Sunday over plans to build more plants using the European pressurized reactor (EPR) design, having previously questioned whether this new generation of reactors were viable……….
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/france-to-cut-nuclear-energy-reliance-by-2035—minister-10944548
November 19, 2018
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France, politics |
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APAG2 2nd Aug 2018 *Fusion** The nuclear lobby claims wrongly that tritium is harmless to discharge into
the environment, and that nuclear fusion, in which tritium is used as fuel,
is safe. With this consummate manipulation, the French nucleocrats are
passing ITER the nuclear fusion reactor currently under construction at
Cadarache [Bouches-du-Rhone] a carte blanche. But it is not safe.
https://apag2.wordpress.com/2018/08/02/iter-tritium-danger-%e2%80%a8larnaque-mortifere-du-lobby-du-nucleaire/
November 5, 2018
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France, technology |
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