Green light for 10-year extension of part of France's nuclear fleet

The decision by the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority (ASNR) concerns the twenty reactors of this power, the oldest of which will be 40 years old from next year, out of a fleet of 56 reactors in total.

"All the provisions planned by EDF and those it prescribes open up the prospect of continued operation of these reactors for the ten years following their fourth periodic review," it explains in an information note dated July 1 and made public Thursday.

The work will continue until 2040 for the last reactors, she specifies.

"EDF's ambition, as part of the continued operation of its reactors for another ten years, is to increase their safety level towards that of an EPR-type reactor," the French nuclear giant responded.

"The investments required for this fourth review, estimated at 4 billion euros, are integrated into the overall Grand Carénage program," the industrial program for the renovation and modernization of existing nuclear power plants, he added.

The first ten-year inspections of these reactors, beyond 40 years of age, will begin next year. The first reactor to be inspected will be the one in Paluel (Seine-et-Maritime) in early 2026, EDF told AFP.

EDF's twenty 1300 MW reactors are, in addition to Paluel, spread across the sites of Belleville (Cher), Cattenom (Moselle), Flamanville (Manche), Golfech (Tarn-et-Garonne), Nogent (Aube), Penly (Seine-Maritime) and Saint-Alban (Isère).

This announcement comes just weeks after the government signed the nuclear industry contract for the period 2025-2028, which marks the revival of nuclear power in France and the EPR2 program to build six new high-power reactors. The commissioning of the first of these reactors was pushed back in March from 2035 to 2038.

Energy sovereignty

The revival of nuclear power, which will have to be included in the next Multi-Year Energy Programme (PPE), marks a break with the previous one adopted in 2020, which notably included the closure of 14 reactors, including the two at Fessenheim.

It comes at a time of tense debate over France's energy future, with supporters of all-nuclear power directly opposing solar and wind power on the grounds that they would cost the community too much.

In an article in Le Figaro on Wednesday, Interior Minister and President of the Republicans (LR), Bruno Retailleau, and two party officials, spoke out in favor of giving absolute priority to nuclear power and against public support for wind and photovoltaic power, which, according to them, "only bring intermittence to the French energy mix, which is costly to manage."

This statement was sharply criticized by other members of the government and the renewable energy sector, for whom abandoning wind and solar power amounts to maintaining France's energy dependence on foreign sources.

"Believing that escaping dependence on fossil fuels and the countries that produce them can be achieved by abandoning renewable energy and putting workers in their sectors out of work is a pipe dream - and a position that is completely opposed to the government's line," stated Marc Ferracci, the Minister of Industry.

Relying on nuclear power alone "is in reality a renunciation of electrification and therefore of the exit from fossil fuels, with the key being the maintenance of our dependence" on foreign sources, which cost France 60 billion euros each year, also estimated Jules Nyssen, the president of the Syndicat des énergies renouvelables (SER).