nuclear-news

New EDF boss at mercy of ‘to-do list’ that ousted his predecessor

 The new boss of French state-owned energy group EDF faces the same nearly
impossible tasks that led to the ousting of his predecessor: satisfying the
government’s often contradictory demands for cheap power to help industry
and the construction of costly new nuclear reactors.

Bernard Fontana, nominated as chief executive on March 21, is a seasoned industrialist who
has run EDF’s engineering arm Framatome for nearly nine years. He will
seek to avoid the fate of the previous chief executive Luc Rémont, removed
last month after just over two years because of repeated clashes with the
state.

On Fontana’s to-do list will be repairing relations with the
government, the company’s only shareholder, striking energy supply deals
with some of EDF’s biggest industrial clients, while also advancing plans
to build six nuclear reactors in just over a decade — a key initiative of
French President Emmanuel Macron, which was announced three years ago.

Fontana’s main challenge is to balance competing pressures of delivering
low rates for power, demanded by government and industry, while generating
profits that will help support vast investments required to launch new
nuclear reactors.

The company ran over budget and behind time on the
completion of Flamanville, a new nuclear reactor in northern France, and
faces budget and timing issues with the UK’s Hinkley Point. It has also
faced criticism that it is yet to outline timelines and costings for the
project to build the six new nuclear reactors, which were originally due by
the end of 2024.

Last month, the government pushed back the launch date
from 2035 to 2038, although observers have long considered the 2035 target
unachievable. In short, Fontana’s success will depend on whether he can
walk the tightrope of running EDF profitably while delivering the vast
capital outlay needed to reboot France’s nuclear sector. This will
require a major shift from Rémont’s uncompromising approach. “If
Fontana has taken the job, he’s understood the lesson [from Rémont’s
sacking]. If he hasn’t, he’s an idiot,” said another adviser.

 FT 6th April 2025 https://www.ft.com/content/b9f39568-6029-4016-9c5f-0242dd8b9174

April 9, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

France delays EPR2 reactors to 2038

 The 4th meeting of France’s Nuclear Policy Council (CPN – Conseil de
politique nucléaire), chaired by President Emmanuel Macron, decided to
delay the commissioning of EPR2 reactors to 2038 – a postponement of
three years. The CPN, which has been held regularly since 2022, defines the
main orientations of national nuclear policy.

The EPR2 programme, announced
in February 2022, envisages the construction of six upgraded EPR reactors
with an option for eight more. The first three pairs of EPR2 reactors are
planned for the Penly, Gravelines and Bugey NPP sites. Construction is
expected to start in 2027. The cost was originally estimated at €51.7bn
($56.4bn), but this was revised upwards to €67.4bn in 2023, according to
the Court of Auditors. Taking inflation into account, a total budget of
nearly €80bn is now being considered.

 Nuclear Engineering International 21st March 2025, https://www.neimagazine.com/news/france-delays-epr2-reactors-to-2038/

March 27, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | 1 Comment

French government ousts head of nuclear power group EDF.

 Luc Rémont’s exit comes after months of tension over plans for new reactors and clash over pricing strategies.

France has ousted the chief executive of the
state-owned nuclear power group EDF after months of tensions over strategy
and the risk of cost overruns in the construction of six new reactors.

Luc Rémont, who had been at EDF since November 2022, would be replaced by
Bernard Fontana, the current head of Framatome, a subsidiary of EDF that
builds reactors and components, the Élysée Palace said on Friday.

EDF runs the country’s fleet of 57 nuclear plants that generate roughly 70
per cent of France’s electricity, and commercialises nuclear projects
abroad. Rémont succeeded in the initial challenge of restoring the output
of the fleet of reactors after a period plagued by technical problems, and
was in the early stages of a plan to build new more powerful, yet costly
ones, known as the EPR2.

But his term was marred by continued spats with
the state, which nationalised EDF through buying out the minority
shareholders in 2023. The Elysée decided not to renew Rémont’s
three-year term that was set to expire in June.

A major point of contention
was over Rémont’s plans to revamp how EDF sells electricity to big
industrial companies with energy-intensive activities. In the past, the
company was legally required to sell fixed amounts of electricity to them
at a price approved both by the French government and the European
Commission.

With those rules expiring next year, Rémont had been set to
combine market pricing with the signing of long-term contracts with
customers in energy-intensive industries. But the offers attracted few
companies since the terms and prices were less attractive. In parallel to
long-term contracts, EDF said this month that it would launch a new
auction-like process for other industries, including foreign buyers, in a
move that angered energy-intensive groups in France.

 FT 21st March 2025, https://www.ft.com/content/c822f4e4-c15a-4038-aad4-a7151629277d

March 24, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

Macron Ousts EDF CEO as Tension Rises on French Power Costs

The French government said Electricite de France SA Chief Executive Officer Luc Remont is stepping down as the state-owned utility faces increasing complaints from large industrial clients over the cost of electricity.

Author of the article:, Bloomberg News, Francois de Beaupuy, https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/macron-ousts-edf-ceo-as-tension-rises-on-french-power-costs 21 Mar 25

(Bloomberg) — The French government said Electricite de France SA Chief Executive Officer Luc Remont is stepping down as the state-owned utility faces increasing complaints from large industrial clients over the cost of electricity.

President Emmanuel Macron is considering appointing Bernard Fontana, the 64-year-old senior executive vice president in charge of the company’s Industry and Services unit, as the new chairman and CEO, the president’s office said in a statement Friday. Remont, 55, has held the positions since November 2022.Article content

“The choice that the government has long supported is electricity that is abundant, clean and not too expensive, and it’s based on this choice that Bernard Fontana’s nomination has been made,” French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said on a trip to Bourges, central France. “He’s an industrialist, which means he’s used to running teams and speeding up projects.”  

Tensions between the government, EDF and major customers have been mounting over the utility’s electricity offerings. Representatives of power-hungry users, such as chemical makers, have said EDF’s new offers aren’t attractive enough, threatening their competitiveness, while rivals in the US and Asia enjoy cheaper energy. Their concerns have been exacerbated recently by sluggish economic growth, uncertainties over gas prices due to the Ukraine war, and mounting trade tensions between Europe, the US and China.

A French regulation that forces the nuclear behemoth to sell more than a quarter of its atomic output at a steep discount to current wholesale prices expires at year’s end. Meantime, the debt-laden utility said it needs to increase expenditure on nuclear projects and the power grid to help the country’s energy transition. 

On Thursday, Benoit Bazin, the CEO of French glass and building materials producer Cie. de Saint-Gobain, said on BFM Business television that his company has delayed investment in France because it cannot predict energy costs from next year. Meantime, it has invested in Norway and Canada to electrify plants, and will soon do the same in Spain.

Bazin said he was “extremely shocked” by Remont’s recent decision to auction long-term power supply contracts to rival producers and suppliers, broadening offers that initially were reserved for its large electricity clients. 

“EDF is a national company that has a public service mission on the competitiveness of the French industry,” the Saint-Gobain CEO said. “France won’t keep its industry, nor re-industrialization and decarbonization if we keep walking on our head.”

Shutting Sites

Earlier this week, Marc Schuller, chief operating officer of French chemical maker Arkema SA, said during a parliamentary hearing that talks with EDF over new power contracts were “advancing very slowly.

“If nothing is done, we’ll have to consider shutting down sites and stopping some activities because we wouldn’t be competitive anymore,” Schuller said.   

Fontana has held a variety of management positions during his career at steelmakers ArcelorMittal SA and Aperam SA, including CEO of Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd. Within EDF, he’s been in charge in recent years of Framatome, the unit that makes large equipment for nuclear plants.

Beyond easing tensions with large customers, the future boss of EDF will have to complete complex talks with the French and UK governments over the financing and construction of new reactors, which are key planks of these countries’ net-zero ambitions. 

—With assistance from Shelby Knowles.

March 24, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

France’s top audit body questions feasibility of EDF’s nuclear plans

The report noted that the EPR2 program still lacks a final cost estimate and financing plan, while state-owned energy company EDF remains heavily indebted. The Cour des Comptes recommended withholding a final investment decision until financing is secured.

France’s Cour des Comptes has issued a warning about rising nuclear energy costs. It is urging state-owned utility EDF to reduce its financial risks in international projects.

Solar Power Portal, February 3, 2025 Emiliano Bellini, https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/02/03/frances-top-audit-body-questions-feasibility-of-edfs-nuclear-plans/

France’s supreme audit institution, the Cour des Comptes, has released a report on the feasibility of the nuclear plans unveiled by the government in 2022, concluding that the industry is “far from being ready” for the challenge.

The Cour des Comptes said the plan to develop EPR2 nuclear reactors – pressurized water reactors designed by EDF and Framatome – remains unclear.

“The expected profitability of the EPR2 program remains, at this stage, unknown, especially as the financing conditions of this program have still not been determined,” the authors of the report said. “When these conditions will be clear, an additional year or more will be needed to obtain their approval by the European Commission. These delays and uncertainties, which also concern the number of power plants to be built, reduce the visibility that stakeholders in the sector need to engage in industrial projects of this magnitude and obtain financing.”

The report noted that the EPR2 program still lacks a final cost estimate and financing plan, while state-owned energy company EDF remains heavily indebted. The Cour des Comptes recommended withholding a final investment decision until financing is secured.

These precautions aim to prevent cost overruns similar to those seen in EDF’s Olkiluoto EPR project in Finland, the Hinkley Point plant in the United Kingdom, and the Flamanville 3 facility in France.

“EPR reactors operating in China and Finland have experienced multiple technical malfunctions in recent years, with significant financial impacts and damaging consequences for the credibility of the EPR2 program,” said Cour des Comptes. “EDF had to record in its 2023 financial report a depreciation of this asset which reduced its results by €11.5 billion ($11.77 million),” they added referring to the Hinkley Point C project, whose costs rose to GBP 33 billion ($40.6 billion), a 100% increase versus the initial estimated cost.

The court also said that a proposal to expand EDF’s Sizewell plant in the United Kingdom could be rejected if the French utility fails to reduce its financial exposure for Hinkley Point C. It warned that the industrial strategy implemented by EDF does not yet guarantee the accountability of stakeholders and noted that the incentives that are essential to the success of the EPR2 program.

“The EDF group’s strategy, which plans to continue promoting nuclear reactors internationally, should no longer make excessive equity commitments or take excessive risks in terms of profitability and operational coordination between the different projects,” the court said, noting that these financial risks may slow down the schedule of EPR2 program in France.

The report concluded that efforts to strengthen the nuclear industry remain inadequate, particularly in rebuilding skills and capacity.

February 7, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | Leave a comment

Nuclear- not good vibrations in France

Renew Extra 25th Jan 2025, https://renewextraweekly.blogspot.com/2025/01/nuclear-not-good-vibrations-in-france.html

France is having problems with nuclear power.  It was once the poster child for nuclear energy, which, after a rapid government funded build-up in the1980s based on standard Westinghouse Pressurised-water Reactor (PWR) designs, at one point supplied around 75% of its power, with over 50 reactors running around the country. Mass deployment of similar designs meant that there were economies of scale and given that it was a state-run programme, the government could supply low-cost funding and power could be supplied to consumers relatively cheaply.

But the plants are now getting old, and there has been a long running debate over what to do to replace them: it will be expensive given the changed energy market, with cheaper alternatives emerging. At one stage, after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011, it was proposed by the socialist government to limit nuclear to supplying just 50% of French power by 2025, with renewables to be ramped up. 

That began to look quite sensible when, in 2016, faults were found with the steel forgings of some of the old PWR plants. There was an extensive programme of reactor checks, with some units having to be shut down for the duration. But the industry, though chastened by stories about cover-ups, survived, and, with a new government in power led by Macron, the 50% limit was delayed. Indeed, proposals were made for significant expansion, based in part on an upgrade European Pressurised-water Reactor (EPR) design.  

Macron said ‘Our energy & ecological future depends on nuclear power; our economic and industrial future depends on nuclear power; and France’s strategic future depends on nuclear power’:

The first EPR in France has been built at Flamanville on the Normandy coast, but all did not go well.  It was 12 years late and four times overbudget.  And new vibration problems could mean that it may not be able to run at full power. In addition, more problems (this time with stress corrosion) have been found with some of the old plants. 

With at one stage, 28 of them shut down for tests and/or repairs, EDFs financial situation became increasingly weak. And, it has got worse. With, in 2024, the French government and economy also being in some disarray, it looked as if plans for more projects might have to be reconsidered, their being reports that ‘in the absence of financial commitment from the State, EDF (is) raising the possibility of halving the investments planned in the EPR2 program in 2025.’

It was the same for EDFs programme of building more EPRs in the UK- with one at Sizewell in Suffolk being proposed to follow on from the part-built one at Hinkley Point in Somerset.  Indeed, the French Court of Auditors has just recommended ‘not approving a final investment decision for EDF in Sizewell C before obtaining a significant reduction in its financial exposure in Hinkley Point C’. 

So what next? The somewhat beleaguered French government evidently wants the European Commission to revise EU renewable energy directive to also provide support for new nuclear!  But back home, it is arguably ‘far from ready’ for a new nuclear expansion programme.  And, with nuclear costs rising, the idea of treating it as ‘low risk’ compared with renewables in EU plans is being resisted.  Then again EDF evidently think some new nuclear options are too risky- it has pulled out of work on its initial design for a Small Modular Reactor, so it is no longer a contender for the UK SMR competition.

What does all this mean for the UK?  Well, although its overall finances are not good, up until recently, EDF has done quite well out of the UK, still running its fleet of old AGRs and its single PWR, with the UK’s funding subsidy schemes providing support for French profit-making via surcharges on UK consumers bills – in the case of the proposed new RAB scheme for Sizewell C, in advance of project completion. Indeed, some might say EDF’s exploitation of the UK has been overdone and not helpful! 

Certainly, EDF’s current troubles add to the increasing level of uncertainty about Sizewell C. China had provided some backing for Hinkley, but, with there being growing concerns about security, the UK government decided that China could not be allowed to back Sizewell. So the hunt was on for new backers. However, it has proven to be hard, and with talk of the bills for these projects ballooning, allegedly to £46bn for Hinkley, the opposition lobby is getting more assertive. Hinkley Point C was originally meant to start up in 2017, but may finally get going in 2031 or so. It is a giant project, impressive in a way, but arguably not what is needed, with renewables getting so much cheaper. Same for Sizewell C- it’s getting increasingly hard to justify it.

EDF do seem to be having it tough with nuclear of late, but although the costs of the EPRs  may be disputed, whatever they turn out to be, it’s far from clear if the French EPRs will be value for money.  The UK has done quite well so far with renewables, which have helped it get its emissions down by a half between 1990 and 2022, compared to a 23% reduction in France, where nuclear is still predominant and renewable are, so far, less developed.  Time for a change everywhere? Certainly, back in 2021, the IEA and RTE Agency in France produced a study asking if it was technically possible to integrate very high shares of renewables in large power systems like that in France. It concluded that, if coupled with adequate storage and system balancing, for renewables to supply 85-90% of power by 2050 and 100% by 2060. However, it would be expensive. But then so would continuing with nuclear, maybe more so.

January 28, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | Leave a comment