ADOPTION OF THE RECOVERY LAW

NUCLEAR BY SENATORS

“It is a new energy pact that we are building”, rejoiced the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.

The text on the relaunch of nuclear power is indeed part of the government's strategy of reducing the energy consumption of the French, facilitating the development of renewable energies and nuclear power.

The text had been adopted at first reading in the Senate at the end of January and in the National Assembly at the end of March, before being sent to the joint joint committee (CMP) to build a compromise text between parliamentarians.

The CMP, bringing together seven deputies and seven senators on May 4, reached an agreement on the nuclear stimulus bill, which aims to facilitate the construction of six new EPR reactors promised by Emmanuel Macron by 2035.

The CMP underlined the maintenance of most of the provisions that it had introduced in the text along four axes.

In terms of energy planning, she cites the removal of "three obstacles to the revival of nuclear energy resulting from the 2015 'Energy Transition' law" - repeal of the objective of reducing nuclear energy to 50% and of the ceiling of authorization of 63.2 gigawatts (GW) and obligation for the government to revise the multiannual energy program (PPE) to withdraw the trajectory for the closure of the 14 existing reactors (article 1 A). The next "five-year energy law" will also have to set an objective for the construction of EPR2s and SMRs and specify the means to achieve it (article 1)

Nuclear safety and security

The committee also considers that it has strengthened nuclear safety and security through several provisions – integration of resilience to climate change in the safety demonstration of reactors, both at the licensing and review stage, and cyber-resilience, in their protection against malicious acts (article 9 bis), maintenance of a five-year report on nuclear safety within the framework of the review (article 9).

Instead of a merger deemed "badly assessed and badly anticipated" of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) and the Institute for Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Radiation Protection (IRSN) as envisaged by the government, it consolidated the powers and resources of ASN (articles 11 to 11 ter and 15). Penalties for trespassing on nuclear power plant sites have also been increased and supplemented (Article 13).

Nuclear revival

The project aims to speed up town planning procedures and facilitate administrative procedures to launch the construction of six EPR 2 nuclear reactors, then to consider the construction of eight others. The first concrete is expected for 2027, hope the defenders of its revival.

On Tuesday, 315 senators voted in favor of the work that came out of it. The 12 senators from the ecologist group (Ecology, solidarity and territories - GEST), as well as one from the socialist group (Socialist, ecologist and republican - SER) positioned themselves against, while the 15 from the communist group (Communist, republican, citizen and ecologist — CRCE) abstained.

Environmentalists up in arms

Far from being an acceptable compromise for environmentalists, the bill as it emerges from the work of the CMP "moves even further away from democratic and environmental imperatives", they denounced in a press release.

On the merits, Mr. Salmon deplored the removal of the objectives of reduction and/or contraction of nuclear power in the French energy mix. So many locks that had to be removed, rather argue the defenders of the text.

The senator is also alarmed by the partial consideration of the effects of climate change on the existing and new nuclear fleet and the downward revision, by the government, of the data on the use by the nuclear fleet of water resources. .

For the left, the redevelopment of nuclear power runs counter to the EU's need for energy independence and its climate objectives.

As for the Communists, the latter abstained, although the president of the group Fabien Gay, reminded the podium that his group was "favorable to the development of new nuclear reactors".

But according to him, the text presented in the chamber "does not address any of the structural questions that are essential to the objectives assigned to it", noting the shortcomings in terms of financing, training, etc.

Conversely, among those who voted in favor of the bill, the senators of the group affiliated with the presidential majority (Rally of Democrats, Progressives and Independents - RDPI) note that it allows "one more step to concretize the President Emmanuel Macron's project to strengthen our sovereignty and make France the first major country in the world to get out of its dependence on fossil fuels".

For supporters of nuclear power, its very low CO2 rate - four times less than solar power, for example - makes it an essential energy for the low-carbon transition. Nuclear power avoids the release of 2 billion tons of CO2 each year worldwide, the equivalent of the production of 400 million cars.

The conclusions of the CMP will be examined Tuesday, May 16 by the deputies. The latter had voted by a large majority in favor of the text during the first reading.