On Monday afternoon, corresponding to March 13, the National Assembly will approve the nuclear acceleration bill, the study of which was evident in the controversy surrounding the nuclear safety reform that the government seeks.
MPs have four days to study the 650 amendments to this text aimed at making it easier to build new reactors in France: the six EPRs promised by Emmanuel Macron by 2035.
sequel after announcement
How is the nuclear lobby trying to win the battle of ideas?
“It will be very hot.”
In still worrying news over pension reform, the government built on traditional support for the right to adopt maize without too many difficulties on first reading, after a very broad Senate vote at the end of January. This text is not “Not a big night”but “The advantage of putting nuclear power back at the center of discussions and our energy mix”LR Rep. Jerome Nouri confirms.
But opponents of nuclear energy, EELV and LFI, intend to rely on two recent events to fuel the debate: crack “Important” Revealed in the tubes of a reactor at the Penly Power Station (Seine-Maritime), the reported disappearance of the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) which the Executive wants to integrate into the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), the plant’s policeman.
Joel Barr, the new “Mr. Nuclear” responsible for averting a blackout in the year 2035
“It’s going to be very hot. Environmentalists, it’s the fight of their lives.” [la lutte contre le nucléaire] »A parliamentary source insists, even though support for nuclear power has been clearly garnered in opinion polls, in the midst of the energy crisis.
The government added nuclear safety reform with a minor amendment approved by MPs on the committee. But it raises the ire of unions IRSN as well as ASN and the left protests even in the majority. The institute’s trade union is organizing a new strike day, Monday.
sequel after announcement
this project “fusion” east “Incomprehensible”in a press release, denounced the deputies of the New Ecological and Social People’s Union (Nupes), who are ruling “Necessary to maintain independence between the regulatory function (ASN) and the experience function (IRSN)”. Among the Macronists, Rapporteur Maud Bregeon, formerly of the EDF, distinguishes between “legitimate questions” On IRSN, the arguments used “Shoot the dice” nuclear “ideology”. She begs not to “Having nuclear energy ashamed” Because he “It will enable us to achieve carbon neutrality” And a better power rule, she says.
A sector “under the control” of Russia, according to Greenpeace
The bill is limited to new facilities located at or near existing nuclear sites, and aims to streamline administrative procedures for “Don’t add a delay of two to three years to the construction of the reactor.”According to the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. The next two EPRs should be installed in Penly, followed by two more in Gravelines (North), according to EDF plans, with a 2027 target of First pouring of concreteAnd “2035-2037” For commissioning, according to the government.
At the committee, deputies endorsed a controversial addition from the Senate: scrapping the 50% cap on the share of nuclear power in the French electricity mix by 2035.
Emmanuel Macron hesitated in a waltz on nuclear power
Without an absolute majority in the Assembly, the government collects two technical texts on energy, going respectively to the left and then to the right of the orb of blood: the first on renewable energy sources, which has been finally adopted with the support of the Socialist deputies, and the other on nuclear which is seen by LR and RN with a good eye. Before a third more political law is passed, it is expected at best that multi-year programs this summer will set goals to be achieved for each energy. this “chops” Active texts are not to the taste of oppositions.
sequel after announcement
Anti-nuclear NGO Greenpeace is fighting the bill and has just denounced, in the midst of the war in Ukraine, a French nuclear industry. “under control” Through the continuous supply of reprocessed uranium from Russia, and imports of natural uranium from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. France had decided in 2015 to shut down 14 of the 58 reactors, before the retreat announced by President Emmanuel Macron in favor of revival.
Nuclear power typically accounts for about 70% of electricity production. Due to outages due to wear and the low availability of the nuclear fleet, this percentage was only 63% in 2022.
