2022-12-14 23:00:00
Wednesday, December 14, 2022, the economic affairs committee a gathered the major players in the French nuclear industry : Luc Rémont, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EDF, Guillaume Dureau, Chairman of Orano Projects SAS, Bernard Doroszczuk, Chairman of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), François Jacq, General Administrator of the General Commission for atomic energy and alternative energies (CEA), and Thomas Veyrenc, executive director of the Electricity transmission network (RTE).
This hearing is part of Daniel Gremillet’s preparatory work, Chairman of the “Energy” study group et rapporteur for the Economic Affairs Committee on the bill on the acceleration of procedures relating to the construction and operation of nuclear facilities. Pascal Martin, rapporteur for opinion on this text for the Committee on Regional Planning and Sustainable Development, took part.
While France is facing unprecedented heavy risks of load shedding this winter and the next, the Committee on Economic Affairs calls for a rapid response to the challenge of relaunching nuclear power.
She deplores the Government’s glaring lack of anticipation: the commission was concerned regarding the impact, on the availability of the nuclear fleet, of the Covid-19 crisis, from June 2020 and stress corrosion, from February 2022. It called for a massive revival of the the entire French nuclear sector, with the construction of at least 14 EPRs, to maintain a predominantly nuclear mix by 2050, starting last July.
She also regrets the Government’s review schedule: to do well, it would have been necessary to legislate on programming, then nuclear, then renewable.
She finally denounces the “blind spots” of the text, which does not address strategy, funding, skills, or research and development (R&D).
The lack of strategy was noted by Bernard Doroszczuk, Chairman of ASN: “The cliff effect does happen. The current reactors will stop one day. We have to anticipate it and think regarding it now […] We need a systemic approach to nuclear power, without detaching nuclear power production from the upstream and downstream of the cycle, including waste. It is the entire system that must be the subject of a vision and a program. It’s not in the current law.”
For his part, Luc Rémont, PDG d’EDF, mentioned the need for funding: “On the financial package, in the end, there are only two people who can pay: the customer or the taxpayer. […] EDF’s wish is to sell a service corresponding to the full cost of the cycle and the cost of renewal. Can EDF do this given the state of regulation and market rules? The answer is no. This is a subject on which we must work with government and community authorities. It may not be enough […] in which case it will have to be supplemented by guarantees or public support”.
He recalled the need for skills: “On the attractiveness of the nuclear sector, an essential subject, I am not worried regarding the quality of skills. Simply, we have a problem of quantity, linked to the fact that the sector has not built industrially for a long time, that our country has shrunk technically and that we will have to renovate and build at the same time”.
Finally, Francois Jacq, general administrator of the CEA, called for developing R&D: “The various technologies must be articulated, otherwise it will be difficult to build a solid mix. It is of course on research and innovation that we must work. Research is considered as a commodity; it is taken for granted I think this is not the case, despite the exceptional mobilization of the CEA teams. We have world-renowned research knowledge. SMRs are certainly not a panacea, but I have always said that it was a path to be explored carefully”.
In this context, the commission will be very careful to complete and consolidate the bill .
For Daniel Gremillet, rapporteur “The bill presented by the Government gives off a feeling of incompleteness. Focused on town planning authorizations or environmental assessments, it leaves aside a large number of prerequisites for recovery: strategy, financing, skills. Nor does it solve the challenges of research and development (R&D). I am thinking of the adaptation of reactors to new risks, including climate and digital issues. I am also thinking of their technological development, with small modular reactors or hydrogen electrolyzers. It will take more than a simplification law to lay the foundations of tomorrow’s nuclear power!”.
For Sophie Primas, President “There is a lot to be said regarding the incessant procrastination of the last 10 years on nuclear power. I am marked by the general lack of anticipation highlighted by all the stakeholders: overall strategy, development of skills, research, technical cooperation , fuel cycle, financing, European structuring… nothing seems sufficiently anticipated when in essence this sector is that of the long, even very long time. It is high time to reverse the steam, beyond the simple acceleration of the procedures that are proposed to us!”.
The Economic Affairs Committee is chaired by Sophie Primas (The Republicans – Yvelines).
Daniel Gremillet (Les Républicains – Vosges) is chairman of the “Energy” study group and rapporteur for the bill relating to the acceleration of procedures relating to the construction of new nuclear facilities near existing sites and to the operation of existing facilities.
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