The bill aimed at shortening administrative procedures to facilitate future sites is examined in the Senate from Tuesday.
by Adrien Pécout
The French nuclear industry wants to save time. Or at least no longer losing it, which would already be clear progress. The construction of the EPR of Flamanville (Manche) – or European pressurized reactor – was to last less than five years. Ploting of the first concrete made in December 2007, commissioned first expected for June 2012… before many technical setbacks which now postpone it, after the last postponement, in the middle of 2024.
The bill under examination in the Senate as of Tuesday, January 17 aims to accelerate procedures related to future constructions – in addition to part of the operation of current reactors. A very circumscribed text: it concerns the administrative component allowing the start of preparatory work (earthworks, annexed buildings, location of the place), not the first concrete and the construction of the nuclear building. A text “horribly technical”, agreed the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, auditioned by the senators on January 11.
The executive legislative project is limited to future projects near existing power plants. In perspective, the revival of “the great adventure of civil nuclear”, as promised by Emmanuel Macron in February 2022. praising the climatic merits of low carbon electricity, the head of state expressed his will that the country makes Get out of the ground six new reactors, called EPR 2, or even eight others later, depending on the possibility, by the half of the century. 2> Optimistic Exemption
EDF electrician has already in mind the sites of the three initial pairs. First Penly (Seine-Maritime), for a first commissioned commissioning between 2035 and 2037, according to the most optimistic schedule in the company. Then Gravelines (North), not before 2039. Then in the Rhône valley, either the installation of the Bugey, that of the Tricastin, at best by 2043.
“Either construction periods [from the first concrete to the commissioning] decreasing about nine years for the first of the six and a half tranches for the sixth”, specifies a document of the government on the relative work At the new nuclear in early 2022, after two external audits. Duration to compare to that of the first EPRs, after various adjournments: nine years for those of Taishan (China) and at least seventeen years for Olkiluoto (Finland), which is still waiting for its commercial start.
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