Liberation 30th May 2018 [Machine Translation] “The impasse”, how the EPR sank French nuclear.
France 5 broadcasts this Wednesday night “Nuclear, the French impasse”, a documentary against the declining reign of the atom. This film investigates EDF’s crazy gamble: risking its survival on the EPR, a reactor that accumulates trouble.
Will the EPR be the Titanic of French nuclear power? This is the shocking question posed by a film investigated by director Patrick Benquet broadcast tonight on France 5 which points to the “impasse”
in which the “most nuclearized country in the world” has locked up by equipping itself with 58 reactors. the 70s-80s. A fleet of 19 aging plants, which still produces 75% of French electricity, and which EDF wants to keep at all costs by launching a new generation of pressurized water reactor:
the EPR, “the most powerful never built, able to supply electricity to a metropolis like Paris. It must have been the deadly weapon of the nuclear lobby to defend the reign of the atom undermined by the Fukushima disaster and the rise of green energies.
EDF dreamed of exporting it all over the world by selling this “new nuclear” as the best lever against global warming. But things did not go at all as planned. And today EDF is going through a crisis that threatens the very existence of the “public service preferred by the French,” says the documentary.
There are these hidden costs of the atom, put under the carpet for decades, which rise to the surface: the enormous costs of reprocessing radioactive waste, is added the bill of the “great refit”: these works of Hercules designed to extend the lifespan of aging plants from 40 to 50 years. ”
EDF promised cheap electricity, but the real cost of nuclear energy today is in the tens and tens of billions. And ultimately it is the taxpayer who will pay, announces the implacable voice off. Yet, EDF, the nuclear state in the state, will launch the EPR at all costs. By assigning a strategic mission: take over
the old reactors that will gradually retire by 2035.
http://www.liberation.fr/france/2018/05/30/l-impasse-comment-l-epr-a-coule-le-nucleaire-francais_1655363
June 1, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, France, politics |
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Liberation 17th May 2018 [Machine Translation] At Greenpeace activists’ trial, nuclear safety is no exception. At the trial of 22 activists of Greenpeace, the court tried Thursday to limit the debates to the facts – their intrusion in November in the nuclear site of Cruas-Meysse (Ardèche) – without being able to avoid the question of the safety of the power plants, that the NGO is 
questioning.
This action, preceded by a first in Cattenom (Moselle), had the same objective for its authors: to show flaws in the safety of spent fuel storage pools. The hearing was held under high police protection while a rally to support these “whistleblowers” was held all day in front of the courthouse. http://www.liberation.fr/societe/2018/05/17/au-proces-de-militants-greenpeace-la-securite-nucleaire-n-echappe-pas-aux-debats_1650850
Mediapart 18th May 2018 Against Greenpeace, state prosecutes civil disobedience. Sentences of reprieve and imprisonment were required against the twenty-three activists of Greenpeace who illegally entered the Cruas nuclear power plant in November 2017. For the public prosecutor, as for EDF, “it is time it stops. It is no longer possible to tolerate these repeated intrusions . ”
https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/180518/contre-greenpeace-l-etat-fait-le-proces-de-la-desobeissance-civile
May 19, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, legal |
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The French stress test for nuclear power, Ft.com 18 May 18
Years late and billions over budget the first European Pressurised Reactor is set to become operational. Its success is critical for France Andrew Ward in London and David Keohane in Paris MAY 17, 2018 “….. fuel loading at Taishan — one of the last steps before it starts producing electricity — carries wider significance beyond China. Taishan, operated by China General Nuclear Power Corp, the state-owned energy company, is on course to become, within months, the first plant in the world to operate a European Pressurised Reactor — the Franco-German technology plagued by delays and cost overruns since it was designed in the 1990s. “The Taishan 1 fuel loading is a very important milestone,” says Xavier Ursat, head of new nuclear projects for EDF, the French state-backed utility which owns 30 per cent of the project. “It will bring a new image to the EPR.”
Few technologies are in greater need of a makeover. When work started on the first EPR as a joint venture of Areva of France and Siemens of Germany at Olkiluoto, Finland, 13 years ago, it was supposed to herald a new era of growth for atomic power. Instead, as construction timetables slipped and German support melted away, the EPR has become a symbol of the nuclear industry’s struggle to remain competitive. EDF, the main surviving corporate champion behind the EPR, is hoping that completion of Taishan will mark a turning point in efforts to convince sceptical investors, policymakers and potential buyers that the reactor can still be a success. At stake is the future of the wider French nuclear sector, which is relying on the EPR for long-term growth, at a time when the country’s dependence on atomic power is being questioned by President Emmanuel Macron ’s administration.
Taishan is the furthest advanced of four EPR projects around the world and, at a mere five years late, the least delayed. Olkiluoto is due to come into service next year, a decade late and nearly three times over budget at €8.5bn. It is a similar story at EDF’s flagship Flamanville plant in France, which is seven years late and €7bn over budget. A further project involving two EPRs at Hinkley Point, south-west England, is not due for completion until the end of 2025, eight years after EDF once predicted it would be finished. These setbacks have plunged France’s nuclear industry into financial turmoil. Areva, battered by its losses at Olkiluoto, was last year folded into EDF in a state-brokered deal that amounted to a bailout of the sector. A €4bn capital raising by EDF last year improved its balance sheet but the company still had €33bn of net debt at the end of 2017, only a little less than its current market capitalisation.
No country has more invested in nuclear power than France, which generates 70 per cent of its electricity from the splitting of atoms. The EPR was designed to renew the country’s nuclear fleet as many of its existing 58 reactors approach the end of their operational lives, while also generating valuable export orders. But construction delays have been seized on by those — including some inside the Macron government — who want a decisive shift in French energy policy away from nuclear and towards renewable power. A policy “road map” is due by the end of the year setting out how fast France should pursue a government target to cut nuclear’s share of domestic electricity production to 50 per cent. Similar debates are under way in many countries where nuclear power is generated, as critics argue that its high costs, safety risks and radioactive waste can no longer be justified when the costs of wind and solar power are falling rapidly. ……….
While the EPR was designed to be almost bomb and meltdown-proof, construction flaws have painted a less robust picture. France’s nuclear regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, ruled last year that anomalies in the steel used at Flamanville meant the reactor’s lid, or vessel head, would need replacing — at significant expense — after just six years of operation. Separate defects have since emerged in the welding of steel pipes at the French plant. EDF is due to reveal within weeks whether it can still meet its latest timetable to be fully operational by November 2019. While the start-up of Taishan will be a welcome fillip, Flamanville remains the bigger test for EDF because of its 100 per cent ownership and because approval from the ASN — seen as a gold standard in nuclear regulation — bestows credibility on the technology internationally. ………
Setbacks at Flamanville have cast a shadow over the early stages of construction at Hinkley Point, where two EPRs are being built with an aim to meet 7 per cent of UK electricity demand. EDF insists that experience accumulated at Flamanville and Taishan will make Hinkley a smoother process. Avoiding delays in the UK will be crucial if EDF is to persuade international buyers — and its own shareholders, not least the French government — that the EPR’s teething problems are over. ………
https://www.ft.com/content/7c68a702-57cb-11e8-bdb7-f6677d2e1ce8
May 19, 2018
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China, France, technology |
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Greenpeace France 14th May 2018 [Machine Translation] On the eve of EDF’s Annual General Meeting,
Greenpeace France points to the deception that EDF’s CEO has been driving for several months and will present the shareholders of the company tomorrow.
With a lot of communication on the energy transition, the company is far from developing renewable energies and directs almost all of its investments in nuclear power. That is a losing strategy, both for the company, and for France, which is lagging far behind the implementation of its energy transition.
Faced with EDF shareholders, Jean-Bernard Lévy will no doubt say tomorrow that the company plays a central role in the energy transition, with its solar plan for 2035 presented in December 2017. ” In reality, when we compare the calendars and EDF budgets, we realize that the company will mainly give priority to investments in the nuclear fleet and
postpone its investments in solar …
In general, the company is already behind the targets that she fixed herself. And yet, in 2017, it devoted only 10% of its investments to renewables! ” Exclaims Alix Mazounie, energy campaigner for Greenpeace France.
https://www.greenpeace.fr/espace-presse/ag-dedf-3-intox-jean-bernard-levy-presentera-demain-aux-actionnaires/
May 16, 2018
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France, renewable, secrets,lies and civil liberties |
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Environmental research web 12th May 2018 ,Dave Elliott: Although progress has been relatively slow, France has a
quite ambitious energy policy, with nuclear to be cut back by around 25%, by 2025, so that it supplied a maximum of 50% of power, and renewables accelerating to supply 32% of energy by 2030 and doubling their share of electricity to 40% by then.
And last year, according to BNEF data, France invested $5bn in Clean Energy, up 15% on 2016. It has some interesting
renewable energy projects at a range of scales. For example, the go ahead has been given for 17GW of small-scale renewables. At the larger scale, a 493 MW offshore wind farm also got a go ahead off Brittany- its biggest offshore project so far.
http://blog.environmentalresearchweb.org/2018/05/12/renewables-in-france-slow-progress/
May 14, 2018
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France, renewable |
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Le Monde 12th May 2018 [Machine Translation] Energy: “French stubbornness on the nuclear path is a
risky strategy”. The French choice for nuclear power is all the more dangerous because it is economically outpaced by other sources of energy, says economist Aurélien Saussay in a forum at the “World”. With the new
multiannual energy program (EPP), in public debate until June 30, France seems to have to renew its wishes for nuclear loyalty. The proponents of the status quo advance mostly economic arguments. Only nuclear electricity, flagship of French technology, would be able to meet our needs for a reasonable cost, while not emitting greenhouse gases.
The economic health of the sector is however not reassuring. Contrary to the hopes of a “renaissance” raised in 2007 at the launch of the EPR project in Flamanville, the past decade has proved disastrous for French and international nuclear power. Areva, which had designed and managed the EPR, was in a critical situation in 2016, after suffering a cumulative loss of 10 billion euros from 2011 to 2015. Only the injection of nearly 5 billion euros by the state and a drastic restructuring saved the company from bankruptcy.
Numerous reactor projects have been canceled in recent years in Brazil, South Africa and the United States. Main exception: China, with 20 reactors under construction and 60 more planned for the coming decade. The world’s first EPR commissioned will be located in southeastern China.
Apart from this Chinese specificity, how to explain the defeat, in France and abroad, of an industry promised to the most beautiful future only ten years ago? If “historic” nuclear power cost only € 0.04 / kWh, an EPR kWh
should exceed € 0.12. However, other technologies for generating electricity without greenhouse gas emissions, such as solar photovoltaic or wind, have followed an exactly opposite cost trajectory. In the case of solar, the fall is spectacular: some international projects have crossed the threshold of 0.04 € / kWh.
http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2018/05/12/energie-l-entetement-francais-sur-la-voie-du-nucleaire-est-une-strategie-risquee_5297979_3234.html
May 14, 2018
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ENERGY, France |
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https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/macron-calls-friend-trump-angry-iran-nuclear-move-55124699
French President Emmanuel Macron has called his friend and ally U.S. President Donald Trump to say he’s very worried about tensions in the Middle East, after Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear accord.
Macron’s office said the two leaders spoke Saturday and the French leader expressed his “great concern about stability” in the region. Macron strongly opposes Trump’s pullout from the 2015 global deal curbing Iran’s nuclear activities. Hostilities between Iran and Israel have already escalated in recent days.
Macron and Trump also discussed trade issues. European governments are scrambling to save billions of dollars in trade with Iran that resumed thanks to the 2015 accord.
In addition, France and the EU are pressing Washington for exemption from Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs.
May 14, 2018
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France, politics international |
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150 padlocks disappear from ‘cursed’ French nuclear plant, Times UK, Adam Sage, Paris, 8 May 18, The French nuclear plant touted as a model for Britain’s new reactors was under scrutiny yesterday after 150 of the padlocks protecting its command-control computers disappeared.
Electricity of France (EDF), the state electricity group, filed a criminal lawsuit over the disappearance of the padlocks from cabinets containing the computer system at the plant under construction at Flamanville in northern France.
EDF is leading the £19.5 billion project to build two similar reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset, which are expected to supply 7 per cent of Britain’s electricity.
The company said police were investigating the incident and that it had started an internal audit. None of the computers had been tampered with.
The reactor itself had a separate system, EDF said, which remained under lock… https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/150-padlocks-disappear-from-cursed-french-nuclear-plant-htshx8gwf
May 9, 2018
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France, secrets,lies and civil liberties |
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Le Monde 5th May 2018 , Nuclear: EDF launches negotiations for two new EPRs in the United Kingdom.
According to our information, the French group is discussing with the British government to find a new way of financing to build reactors in Sizewell.
The possibility of sharing the cost of construction with British consumers on their electricity bills is thus under consideration. It would not necessarily be a direct payment, but rather a kind of bond that remains to be defined. For the time being, the British Ministry of Industry is simply saying that “new nuclear power plants have an important role to play
in the future of our low-carbon electricity production”.
To understand the current discussions, we have to go back to Hinkley Point. The two EPRs, whose construction in the West of England began at the end of 2016, must cost 19.6 billion pounds (22.2 billion euros), and that of the first must
start in 2025.
They are criticized from all sides. First on the side of EDF, which finances on its own funds two-thirds (the Chinese CGN brings the rest) and sees the English project plummet its balance sheet. Its chief financial officer resigned to oppose it in March 2016.
http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2018/05/05/nucleaire-edf-lance-les-negociations-pour-deux-nouveaux-epr-au-royaume-uni_5294780_3234.html
May 7, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, politics international, UK |
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Reuters 3rd May 2018 , French uranium mining and nuclear fuel group Orano, formerly called Areva,
said it had signed a fuel reprocessing deal with Ukraine. Orano and the
Ukrainian utility EnergoAtom signed a contract for assessing the
feasibility of reprocessing services of spent fuel assemblies of Ukrainian
VVER-1000 nuclear reactors in Orano la Hague facility Orano said the
contract, signed in the presence of Oleksander Shavlakov, First
Vice-President of EnergoAtom and Pascal Aubret, Senior Executive Vice
President of Orano’s Recycling Business Unit, marks a new step towards
the treatment of Ukrainian used fuels VVER 1000 at the Orano la Hague site.
https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFFWN1SA18N
May 7, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, reprocessing, Ukraine |
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Liberation 2nd May 2018 , The practice of ” revolving doors” consisting of going back and forth
between public and private, without worrying too much about conflicts of
interest, is not the prerogative of the French elite and concerns all
sectors of the world. activity in Europe.
But according to a report to be published Wednesday by the group of Greens in the European Parliament, it
is particularly developed in France in the fossil and nuclear energy
industries. What explain a certain lack of voluntarism in terms of
ecological transition. This 82-page document entitled “Revolving Doors and
the Fossil Fuel Industry” , which Libération has procured, reviews the
“warm relations” that have developed in the main countries of the Union
between policy makers and large companies energy through these famous
revolving doors.
http://www.liberation.fr/france/2018/05/02/energie-les-portes-du-pouvoir-ouvertes-a-tous-les-vents-du-lobbying_1646907
May 4, 2018
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France, secrets,lies and civil liberties |
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France’s Macron and Iran’s Rouhani agree to work on saving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, CNBC, 29 Apr 18
May 2, 2018
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France, Iran, politics international |
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World Nuclear News 27th April 2018 ,A statement of intent to strengthen cooperation on fast neutron
sodium-cooled reactors has been signed between the US Department of Energy
(DOE) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission
(CEA). The partners have also a statement of intent to begin cooperation in
the field of artificial intelligence. The documents were signed yesterday
in Washington, DC, by US Energy Secretary Rick Perry and CEA’s new Chairman
François Jacq.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NP-France-USA-to-enhance-cooperation-on-fast-reactors-2704184.html
April 30, 2018
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France, technology, USA |
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Trump, Macron call for ‘new’ nuclear deal with Iran US President Donald Trump and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron called for a “new” deal with Iran Tuesday, looking beyond divisions over a landmark nuclear accord that now hangs in the balance. SBS News 25 Apr 18 Trump pilloried a three-year old agreement designed to curb Iran’s nuclear program as “insane” and “ridiculous”, despite European pleas for him not to walk away from the accord.
Instead, Trump eyed a “grand bargain” that would also limit Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for militant groups across the Middle East.
“I think we will have a great shot at doing a much bigger, maybe, deal,” said Trump, stressing that any new accord would have to be built on “solid foundations.”………
Macron, visiting Washington on a landmark state visit, admitted after meeting Trump that he did not know whether the US president would walk away from the nuclear deal when a May 12 decision deadline comes up.
“I can say that we have had very frank discussions on that, just the two of us,” Macron told a joint press conference with Trump at his side.
Putting on a brave face, he said he wished “for now to work on a new deal with Iran” of which the nuclear accord could be one part.
Trump — true to his background in reality TV — teased his looming decision.
…… Neither Trump nor Macron indicated what Iran would get in return for concessions on its ballistic programs or activities in the Middle East.Iran, meanwhile, has warned it will ramp up enrichment activities if Trump walks away from the accord, prompting Trump to issue a blunt warning.
“They’re not going to be restarting anything. If they restart it, they’re going to have big problems, bigger than they ever had before. And you can mark it down,” he said…….. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/trump-macron-call-for-new-nuclear-deal-with-iran
April 25, 2018
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France, Iran, politics international, USA |
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FT 23rd April 2018 , Nick Butler: In the rapidly changing global energy environment nothing is
sacred, no business model is beyond challenge and no company is safe. The
latest business being forced to rethink and restructure is the French state
group Electricité de France.
EDF has become a symbol of technical weakness
and French decline. But, as with so much else in France since the arrival
of an ambitious president who feels no need to defend decisions of the
past, change is becoming possible.
For all its problems the company could be reborn as a successful player in the new energy economy. But where would
that leave nuclear power? The continuing transformation of the global
energy market is not just about climate change and the move to a lower
carbon economy. It is also about the advance of new technology, the
changing geography of the energy market in favour of Asia and, above all,
the move from a time of scarcity and energy insecurity to an age of plenty.
Nuclear costs remain too high, private investors sensibly run away from the
construction risks involved and, crucially, there are alternatives. Wind
and solar costs have fallen dramatically. In many markets they are now half
the cost per megawatt hour of large-scale new nuclear.
The prospect of commercially viable techniques of grid-level storage opens the way for an
even bigger shift. If the challenges of intermittency can be overcome and
the need for subsidies removed or much reduced, wind and solar can become
the natural economic choice for energy supply.
At last, EDF appears to be recognising reality. There is much discussion of the company being divided
in two, with the legacy nuclear assets held by the French government and
the rest of the business, including a major new division called EDF
Energies Nouvelle, being allowed to operate on proper commercial terms in
the open market, under new management.
The company is also pulling back from further investment in new nuclear. UK chief executive Simone Rossi has
for the first time talked about the possibility of the company dropping its
interest in the next prospective nuclear venture at Sizewell in Suffolk. To
go ahead, he said, would require a new financial deal.
In the absence of enthusiastic private investors that can only mean funding from the French
or British governments – and Mr Rossi should not hold his breath for that
given the state of public finances in both countries. If EDF steps out of
the new nuclear business, it will be the end of European involvement in the
sector. With nuclear power in the US also in real trouble that leaves
Japan, Korea and China as the main players. Such is the tough logic of
globalisation.
https://www.ft.com/content/39f30854-4001-11e8-803a-295c97e6fd0b
April 25, 2018
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, France |
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