Will we have to choose one day between heating and staying? This question is absurd at the individual level, but less to that of the State which must constantly arbitrate subjects as uncomfortable as this one. Thus he thinks today, according to Les Echos , to reserve a part of the booklet A, the 375 billion of which are devoted Essentially the financing of social housing, to invest a part in nuclear. The reflection is for the moment very theoretical, since the needs of money will not be felt until 2027, when the sites of the new reactors start. In addition, it would only be a modest part of this kitty, of the order of 10 billion euros.
This case has the merit of putting the real Achilles heel of nuclear, its funding on the table. With two questions. The first is: how much? According to the latest government estimates established in 2022, it will take between 51 and 56 billion euros for the first six expected copies. The financing costs will be added to it, as well as the inevitable vagaries of this kind of site, which ultimately could lead to almost 10 billion per machine.
The second question follows: who will pay? In Great Britain, where EDF also builds EPRs, funding will be largely deprived and will affect the bill of users. France is not hot, especially since institutional funders do not jostle either. Hence the reflection on the booklet A.
preponderant base
The crucial point is the final cost of the electron, which will determine its competitiveness, and therefore its place in the French electric basket. Nuclear is intended to replace gas as an extra energy at a high cost, but essential, or will it constitute as today the preponderant base of French energy supply, including replacing hydrocarbons in transport or industry?
For the moment, the inflation of nuclear costs in the face of the accelerated deflation of the price of renewable energies pleads in favor of the first solution, online with the latest scenarios of the International Energy Agency. But, in the imagination, many dream of returning to the Gallic and Gaullian village, when France deployed its nuclear singularity and unbeatable prices. Wisdom today recommends not putting all its eggs in the same basket, whether renewable or nuclear.