William Freebairn report that the French economy and trade minister Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday his country will continue to invest in nuclear energy, including providing support for utility EDF plan to build a nuclear plant in the UK, despite delays on existing projects and a reorganization of the French state-controlled industry. Macron, speaking at the World Nuclear Exhibition in Paris, acknowledged that the French effort in the 1990s to combine its reactor design businesses and fuel cycle businesses into a single state-controlled company, Areva, was ultimately a failure.
The company is being broken up, with the Areva reactor business being sold to EDF and a new Areva being formed to hold the company mining, enrichment and other fuel cycle businesses. The government will invest Eur5 billion ($5 billion) in Areva, he said, and is seeking minority partners who would invest in both Areva and EDF. The state plans to invest in EDF as well, officials have said. French energy policy is opening the grid to an increasing amount of renewable power generation, but the goal is not to phase out nuclear energy, he said. We have to grow in both industries, it is the heart of our energy strategy, he said.
France is committed to refurbishing its existing fleet, a Eur10 billion project, Macron said. In addition, the country must plan to replace aging reactors that will eventually retire, he said. They will have to build a new fleet of reactors, perhaps incorporating SMRs as well.
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