The French Ministry for Energy Transition has unveiled a bill to speed up procedures related to the construction of new nuclear plants. The bill, which is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly in December 2022 or January 2023, would expedite local planning process for new reactors, ensuring that compliance with town planning rules is checked as part of the examination for environmental authorisation or authorisation to create the reactor. In addition, the text would allow developers to carry out preparatory activities for the construction of a new reactor in parallel of the permitting process once the first approval has been secured.
France plans to build 6 new next-generation EPRs (European Pressured Reactors II) and to launch studies for the construction of 8 additional EPRs as well as SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) to have 25 GW of new nuclear capacity by 2050. The first new EPR should be commissioned in 2035 and the lifetime of existing nuclear reactors would be expanded after 50 years.
In May 2021, EDF submitted plans to build six new EPRs to the French government. The new EPR 2 reactors would be built by pairs at Penly, Gravelines and Bugey or Tricastin, enabling to reduce costs and construction times. The group would wait until the commissioning of its Flamanville EPR project, since the French government has delayed a decision on new nuclear reactors until after the Flamanville 3 project is commissioned (now expected in 2023-2024).
Interested in Global Energy Research?
Enerdata's premium online information service provides up-to-date market reports on 110+ countries. The reports include valuable market data and analysis as well as a daily newsfeed, curated by our energy analysts, on the oil, gas, coal and power markets.
This user-friendly tool gives you the essentials about the domestic markets of your concern, including market structure, organisation, actors, projects and business perspectives.