First modification:
The French president presented on Thursday in Belfort his plan for the reactivation of nuclear energy for France with the construction of six atomic plants and the possibility of expanding the project with another eight more plants. France gets around 70% of its electricity from nuclear power and aims to achieve carbon neutrality through renewable energy by 2050.
The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, announced this Thursday, February 10, that France will build at least six new nuclear reactors in the coming decades and that it will extend the useful life of its existing nuclear plants as a means of meeting the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
Macron announced that construction work is scheduled to begin in 2028, with the first nuclear reactor operating by 2035. Meanwhile, France’s nuclear safety authority has agreed to extend the useful life of the 32 nuclear reactors to 50 years. older nuclear reactors – built in the 1980s – meaning they could last into the 2030s.
“We want, in 30 years, to make France the first major country in the world to free itself from dependence on fossil fuels and strengthen our industrial energy independence. That is our ambition,” Macron said.
The new plants will be built and operated by state-controlled energy provider EDF, a company that is currently facing corrosion problems and has been forced to shut down several aging nuclear reactors for long periods.
Macron heralded the atomic project as an opportunity to mobilize “tens of billions of euros of public funding” to sponsor the projects and safeguard EDF’s economy.
“We are lucky in France to be able to count on a strong nuclear industry, rich in know-how and with hundreds of thousands of jobs,” Macron said as he presented his new nuclear strategy in the eastern industrial city of Belfort.
While the construction and operation of the first atomic power plant in this new and ambitious project is awaited, the French head of state also promised the creation of renewable energy projects with the possibility of immediate operation, even though several of them already have years of experience. delay.
The construction of 50 offshore wind farms is one of the first projects to be carried out, with an operating date for next April.
An unpopular project for some
However, although it has been proven that nuclear energy produces much less emissions than coal, oil or gas, environmental activists criticize the expensive construction and radioactive waste generated by atomic centers, these being a deadly threat for tens of thousands of years. of years for any kind of close life.
This Thursday, groups of anti-nuclear activists and international environmental organizations reacted to the French proposal to promote the nuclear power source, pointing out that its uses are unsafe and involve waste that puts the environment at risk.
[Thread 🧵⬇️] 6 voire 14 nouveaux réacteurs EPR : dans tous les cas c’est irréaliste et irresponsible ! @EmmanuelMacronpresident candidate, proves one fois encore qu’il est incompétent en matière d’écologie! pic.twitter.com/YwYPh2ABQ1
— Greenpeace France (@greenpeacefr) February 10, 2022
“6 or even 14 new EPR reactors – unrealistic and irresponsible in any case! President Emmanuel Macron proves once again that he is incompetent in terms of ecology!” Green Peace France reacted on its Twitter account.
Just two months before the general elections in France, nuclear energy is one of the most important issues of the 2022 presidential campaign and marks the difference between the candidates, where some seek a faster solution to energy problems through of proposals that are 100% friendly to the environment, and others, mostly from the right, who assure that nuclear energy is the future.
Achieve carbon neutrality by 2050?
Although the French government argues that the construction of new nuclear reactors will allow France to meet its commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and help reduce the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, other European countries adamantly deny their support for the projects. atomic bombs and their nuclear plants have been shut down in recent months.
The European Commission (EC) approved at the beginning of February that natural gas and nuclear energy will now be classified as “green” and “sustainable” energies, something that disagrees with the position of countries such as Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, Denmark and Austria .
On October 31, under new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany shut down three of the country’s six nuclear power plants as part of Berlin’s commitment to abandon the use of atomic energy and embrace renewable energy. Scholz promised that the other three will be taken offline by 2022.
And two months later, with the decision of the European Commission to include nuclear energy as “sustainable”, Steffi Lemke, German Minister of the Environment, attacked the plan, assuring that “nuclear energy is anything but sustainable, it is risky , too expensive and the construction and planning processes are too long to contribute to climate neutrality in 2050”.
For her part, the Minister for the Ecological Transition and Third Vice President, Teresa Ribera, said that the Spanish government will not finance new nuclear power plants or gas infrastructure and the Executive did not rule out the possibility of filing an appeal before the Court of Justice of the Union Union against the decision of the European Council.
With Reuters and AP