Mr President, saying that nuclear power will save the climate is a lie.
While Emmanuel Macron continues to affirm his attachment to the atom,
Yannick Jadot, Marine Tondelier, Eric Piolle and Sandra Regol are calling
on France not to get stuck again in costly and dangerous dependence on this
energy.
At the end of 2023, first in a forum, then in his wishes to the
French, President Macron reaffirmed his attachment to the relaunch of
nuclear power. He who questioned in 2017 the relevance of depending
three-quarters on a single source of electricity production has today
transformed into a nuclear industry salesman.
In Dubai, busy tripling
global production by 2050, he actively campaigned for the mention of
nuclear power in the final COP 28 agreement.
Liberation 9th Jan 2024
Behind the (somewhat dirty) scenes of nuclear waste processing
Behind the (somewhat dirty) scenes of nuclear waste processing. Nuclear
energy, even if many call it “clean”, produces a lot of waste (and costs
“crazy money”). A researcher was able to carry out a survey lasting
approximately one year on two French waste landfill sites. How are these
things managed? Exclusive interview. “There is no such thing as
decontamination. This is an abuse of language. You don’t kill the
radioactivity, you move it.”
Mediapart 9th Jan 2024
Energy Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher enthuses over “the rebirth of France’s nuclear industry”
EDF will construct the new plants with tens of billions in public financing
“EDF will construct the new plants with tens of billions in public financing ” – what could possibly go wrong?
France sees potential for 14 new nuclear reactors. 8 Jan 24, https://www.power-technology.com/news/france-may-build-14-new-nuclear-reactors/
France may need to build more than 14 new nuclear power plants, more than the six currently planned, if the nation is to meet its energy transition goal of reducing fossil fuel dependence from 60% to 40% by 2035.
Energy Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher stressed that nuclear will play an increasingly vital role in France’s energy mix. Speaking to La Tribune Dimanche just a few weeks before parliament reveals a bill relating to energy sovereignty, Pannier-Runacher said: “We need nuclear power beyond the first six EPRs [European Pressurised Reactors] since the existing (nuclear) park will not be eternal.”
This new energy strategy will be debated in parliament from late January and must be codified into law.
In 2022, French nuclear power output fell to a 30-year low after operational issues forced many reactors offline. This placed additional upward pressure on European energy prices, which were already being driven up reduced gas flows from Russia. However, French President Emmanuel Macron emphasised the importance of nuclear, stating: “What our country needs, and the conditions are there, is the rebirth of France’s nuclear industry.”
Over the course of 2023, availability improved, falling in line with state-controlled energy provider EDF’s target of 300–330 terawatt-hours. EDF will construct the new plants with tens of billions in public financing and chief executive Luc Rémont said his company aims to build roughly one 1.6GW reactor a year.
President Macron also reinforced his country’s commitment to nuclear at the recent COP28 climate summit in Dubai, where he led a group of 20 world leaders signing a pledge to “triple nuclear energy capacity from 2020 by 2050”. Shortly after signing, Macron pronounced that “nuclear energy is back”.
France currently has 56 operable reactors that produce around 70% of the nation’s electricity. Comparatively, Germany, another European superpower, does not produce any of its electricity from nuclear power, while in the UK the figure is 15%.
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
France’s Council of State opinion on a Bill relating to governance of nuclear safety in relaunching the nuclear sector
Only France could produce such a load of linguistical gymastics as this lengthy gobbledygook.
I’ve read the whole of the original, and still don’t understand it. I think it means that the Council of State thinks that what the government plans – is OK
It could mean a bit of privatising of some nuclear bits is OK. And the military connection is OK?
“the Council of State considers it unnecessary to provide, as the bill does, that the powers of the future authority do not extend to nuclear installations and activities of interest to defense”,”
“the bill modifies the rules currently applicable to ASN staff, in particular so that the ASNR can employ employees under private law,……… including 140 who will be automatically made available. of the Ministry of Defense for missions concerning it”
The Government has decided to make public
the opinion of the Council of State relating to the organization of the
governance of nuclear safety and radiation protection to meet the challenge
of relaunching the nuclear sector.
This bill, which includes twenty-two
articles, is organized into two titles respectively entitled “Nuclear
Safety and Radiation Protection Authority” and “Adaptation of the rules
of public procurement to nuclear projects” corresponding to its two
objects, which are distinct.
Title I includes provisions relating to the
missions and operation of the new independent administrative authority
(AAI) created by the bill, called the Nuclear Safety and Radiation
Protection Authority (ASNR) and resulting from the merger of the current
Nuclear Safety Authority. Nuclear Safety (ASN), which is an AAI, and the
Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), which is a
public industrial and commercial establishment of the State (EPIC). This
title also includes provisions relating to the statutes and representation
of staff of the new authority and transitional provisions, particularly
concerning employees currently employed by the IRSN.
Council of State 22nd Dec 2023
EDF to extend nuclear outages in 2024, 2025 on corrosion issue
CAROLINE PAILLIEZ, Paris, France, 21 Dec 2023
Montel) French utility EDF will extend planned outages at up to five of its reactors by an average of 30 days next year and again in 2025 related to repairs undertaken in 2023 for corrosion, it said late on Wednesday.
The shutdowns could affect one planned outage out of three at 13 reactors*, it said in a statement, adding it was “taking into account key learnings from controls and repairs undertaken in 2023 on reactors linked to stress corrosion cracking”.
The corrosion issue has dogged the firm, with reactor outages jumping 47% in 2022 due to corrosion issues at numerous units, with output plunging to a 33-year………. (Subscribers only) more https://www.montelnews.com/news/1533868/edf-to-extend-nuclear-outages-in-2024-2025-on-corrosion-issue
European nuclear Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) may be unworkable – analysts
CAROLINE PAILLIEZ, Paris, France, SOPHIE TETREL, Paris, 18 Dec 2023
(Montel) Plans by France’s EDF to sell rights to its nuclear capacity to industrials across Europe via long-term power purchase agreements (PPA) while attractive may be unworkable, French analysts warned.
“If nuclear power is offered tomorrow in France at EUR 70/MWh, the whole of Europe will be interested,” said Peter Claes, head of Belgium’s Febeliec industry lobby, in light of a year of record high energy prices.
Yet the analysts, and even EDF itself, have warned that, in practice, the contracts were complex and potentially costly.
The PPAs were open to any big European power consumers wanting to…………………………..(Subscribers only) more https://www.montelnews.com/news/1533543/european-nuclear-ppas-may-be-unworkable–analysts
France scores diplomatic wins on banks and nuclear in new EU rules
Paris successfully pushed for weaker due diligence reporting by lenders and state-backed funding for nuclear power plants
Alice Hancock in Brussels, 15 Dec 2, Ft.com
France has secured a partial carve-out for banks from new EU rules to make companies responsible for environmental impacts in their supply chains. Paris also won, in separate negotiations, assurance that state-backed funding for its nuclear power plants will be possible under a reform of the EU electricity market, the culmination of a concerted effort to champion the low-carbon fuel in the face of opposition from Luxembourg, Austria and Germany.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, French energy minister, hailed the decision as “excellent news”. “It gives us the means to ensure long-term financing for the transformation of our electricity system,” she said……………………………
France, backed by countries including Italy and the Czech Republic, has succeeded in making sure that banks, asset managers and investment groups will only have to report on upstream activities such as purchasing office equipment. They will not have to undertake due diligence on the activities of clients to whom they are offering loans — something that the European parliament had pushed for in the talks.
In a note circulated among negotiators earlier this month, the European Central Bank also warned that “excluding the financial sector would be counterproductive to the intention of the [law], as it would allow the EU financial sector to continue to fund activities detrimental to the EU [environmental and social governance] agenda”.
Arianne Griffith, corporate accountability lead at the NGO Global Witness, said that it was “shocking” that EU countries had “sunk plans to ensure that banks stop investing in environmental and human rights abuses”. Eelco Van der Enden, chief executive of the Global Reporting Initiative, said that it was “disheartening” to see that the French effort had watered down the application of the rules to the financial sector but that a review clause in the agreement could offer the opportunity to include them at a later stage………………………………………..
Both the energy market reform and the due diligence rules must be formally approved by the European parliament and member states in votes due to take place early next year. Once the due diligence directive is approved, EU governments will have two years to introduce the rules in national legislation. https://www.ft.com/content/a4f7c547-1a58-482f-889e-f6400c44bbf7
A blank cheque for France’s Industrial Centre for Geological Disposal (Cigéo) does not prove that it is safe.
In September 2022, 32 organizations and 30 residents jointly filed an
appeal contesting the declaration of public utility (DUP) which was granted
to the Cigéo project (deep geological burial project for the most
radioactive waste) by decree on July 7, 2022.
This decision allowed the
National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management (ANDRA) to acquire the
missing land control for surface installations and the plumbness of
underground works, i.e. approximately 3,500 hectares (the equivalent of the
surface area of Lille) and to expropriate if necessary.
More than a year
later, on December 1, 2023, the Council of State rendered its decision.
Despite all the uncertainties and inaccuracies of the impact study of the
Cigéo project, ANDRA has succeeded in painting with scientific virtues the
fact that it is unable to provide precise evaluations, even with a
Declaration of ‘Public Utility (DUP) of 6,000 pages and almost 30 years of
studies.
It was enough for the Agency to affirm that it will do its best to
precisely identify the impacts of its project and to analyze and counter,
as the construction of Cigéo progresses, all their consequences. We do not
understand how such a project was able to obtain a DUP when it lacks so
much precise “basic” information. Let us remember: the declaration of
public utility facilitates land control, or even the start of work on other
so-called “preparatory” developments for Cigéo and allows the
industrial site to be physically anchored in the territory.
But for those
who read this decision a little too quickly, no, Cigéo is still not
“validated”. The project still needs to pass the stages of creation
authorization which, without giving up, we will attack by all means when
the time comes. We will at least have warned current decision-makers and
present generations and left messages for future generations, engraved in
stone in the archives of the Republic and its Councils.
Sortir du Nucleaire 1st Dec 2023
https://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/CIGEO-un-blanc-seing-qui-ne-signifie-pas-son
French nuclear tax is leap into the dark – analysts
SOPHIE TETREL, Paris, MURIEL BOSELLI, Paris, France, 28 Nov 2023
(Montel) France’s plan to replace the Arenh regulation with a nuclear tax is a “leap into the unknown” and does not guarantee that EDF will sell atomic output at EUR 70/MWh, analysts told Montel.
“We are switching to a full market system. It is a bit of a leap into the unknown and no longer a regulated system in which you know beforehand how much you are paying,” said Nicolas Goldberg, energy consultant at Colombus.
EDF and the government reached an agreement a fortnight ago that they would allow EDF to sell its atomic power at an average of EUR………………..…(subscribers only) more https://www.montelnews.com/news/1531984/french-nuclear-tax-is-leap-into-the-dark–analysts
France goes for its own costly small nuclear reactor, following the USA NuScale flop, and UK’s lagging Rolls Royce one.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/french-nuclear-startup-seeks-150-million-for-reactor-prototype-1.2003704 27 Nov 23
Naarea, a three-year-old French nuclear startup, is looking to raise €150 million ($164 million) as it seeks to develop a small reactor that would meet growing industrial decarbonization needs from the start of the next decade.
The company, which already raised €50 million from a handful of French family offices such as Eren Groupe SA and €10 million from the government, is reaching out to venture capital, industrial and institutional investors, and sovereign wealth funds for a Series A funding round with the help of Rothschild & Co., co-founder Jean-Luc Alexandre said in an interview in Paris Friday. He hopes to close the fundraising in the first quarter next year.
Naarea, which stands for Nuclear Abundant Affordable Resourceful Energy for All, is part of a growing wave of companies from Europe to North America promoting smaller, cheaper (?) and safer(?) designs for reactors. The burgeoning(?) sector of small modular and advanced nuclear reactors — which have a wide array of sizes and technologies — suffered a setback this month when NuScale Power Corp. canceled a plan to build a plant in the US amid mounting costs.
“NuScale isn’t dead, and still has projects,” the Naarea CEO said, while pointing out that the French startup, which employs 175 people, has a different business model and is developing another technology. Naarea aims “to produce power and heat, as close as possible to industrial companies, to relieve the grid.”
The startup, which is working with the French nuclear industry and foreign laboratories, is seeking to build a reactor that would produce 40 megawatts of electricity — enough to power a car factory or some of the biggest desalination plants — as well as heat, according to Alexandre.
Naarea is working on so-called molten salt fast neutron reactors that would be the size of a bus. It would burn plutonium and highly toxic radioactive waste that’s currently stored in France. It has found a ceramic that would prevent corrosion from the liquid fuel, something that has hampered the development of such reactors in the past, the company’s boss said.
The nuclear startup and Automotive Cells Co. — the electric-car battery venture of Stellantis NV, Mercedes-Benz Group AG and TotalEnergies SE — signed a memorandum of understanding to study whether Naarea’s mini-reactors might meet the future needs of ACC’s factories, Naarea said in a statement Monday.
If all goes according to plan, there would be a full-scale prototype in 2028. By 2030, a total of €2 billion would be required to complete the reactor development, build a fuel plant at or near Orano SA’s nuclear-waste recycling facility in La Hague, and a separate reactor factory elsewhere in France. The startup also needs to convince nuclear safety and regulatory authorities about the project.
These reactors “are competitive because they are small,” and safe by design, Alexandre said.
Engie demands close scrutiny of French nuclear power deal to ensure competition.
A recent deal regulating French nuclear power risks making
electricity more expensive and must be carefully monitored to ensure the
new rules do not strengthen EDF’s dominant position, power group Engie’s
CEO said on Wednesday. Vigilance will be needed to ensure EDF’s producer
and supplier activities are strictly separated, said Engie (ENGIE.PA),
which is the second largest electricity supplier in the country behind
state-owned EDF.
Reuters 22nd Nov 2023
Why France’s Emmanuel Macron is courting Central Asia
French President Emmanuel Macron is in Central Asia, on a visit that
highlights the region’s increasing importance to Europe’s supply of nuclear
and fossil fuels. The trip is partly an attempt to drum up business and
foster links with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but the key to understanding
the presidential visit dates back to July.
A military coup in the West
African country of Niger raised the prospect that supplies to France’s
vital nuclear industry might be in jeopardy. In reality, the fears were
overblown. Last year, Niger was only the second supplier of uranium to
France. The first was the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan.
BBC 2nd Nov 2023
Macron pursues nuclear deals in Russia’s back yard
French president hopes to secure uranium supply in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Politico, BY GIORGIO LEALI, OCTOBER 31, 2023
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron travels on Wednesday to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where he hopes to secure uranium for his country’s nuclear plants.
The trip comes as geopolitical tensions grow with the EU’s current major suppliers, Niger and Russia.
Macron’s visit to the two countries aims to expand French influence in an area which has strong ties with Russia and is now also growing closer to China, an Elysée official said………………….
Last summer a military junta took over Niger, which supplies 15 percent of France’s uranium needs, sparking questions as to whether the African country can continue to be a reliable source. Uncertainty has also surrounded imports of Russian uranium since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Niger raises questions, Russia could raise questions in the long term [if] the EU imposes sanctions on the nuclear sector.
An Elysée official said that new contracts and business partnerships will be announced during the trip, including in the energy sector. ………………………………………………………………………..
EDF has also positioned itself to become a supplier of nuclear reactors for Kazakhstan’s first nuclear plant.
The visit comes as Brussels competes with China for influence in the region via investment programs focused on infrastructure.
Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are benefitting from Chinese investment under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, with their presidents attending a high-level meeting on the subject in Beijing in October. The EU is trying to gain influence in the two countries by involving them in cooperation and investment projects under its “Global Gateway” initiative, the bloc’s response to Belt and Road. https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-nuclear-deal-russia-back-yard-kazakhstan-uzbekistan/ #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
France uses teargas on banned pro-Palestinian rally
By Layli Foroudi and Michel Rose, October 13, 20233
PARIS, Oct 12 (Reuters) – French police used teargas and water cannon to break up a banned rally in support of the Palestinian people in Paris on Thursday, as President Emmanuel Macron urged the French to remain united and refrain from bringing the Israel-Hamas conflict home.
Macron’s interior minister had earlier banned pro-Palestinian protests, saying they were “likely to generate disturbances to public order”.
France is home to Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish communities. The Middle East conflict has often stoked domestic tensions in the past.
“This event is an earthquake for Israel, the Middle East and beyond,” Macron said in a solemn TV address. “Let’s not pursue at home ideological adventures by imitating or projecting.”
“Let’s not add, through illusions or calculations, domestic divides to international divides,” he said. “The shield of unity will protect us from hatred and excesses.”
Macron said the government had acted to boost police protection of Jewish sites, including schools and synagogues, and that there could be no justification for atrocities……………..
BANNED RALLY
Despite the ban, several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in central Paris in separate groups that police forces sought to keep from merging……….
“We live in a country of civil law, a country where we have the right to take a stand and to demonstrate. (It is unfair) to forbid for one side and to authorise for the other,” said Charlotte Vautier, 29, an employee at a non-profit who took part in the rally…………….
Two pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Paris had already been banned on Thursday for fear of outbursts when interior minister Gerald Darmanin told prefects to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country…………more https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/france-bans-pro-palestinian-protests-citing-risk-disturbances-public-order-2023-10-12/
1 This Month
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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