French nuclear power plant Tricastin: old reactors are said to run "more than 50 years".
Photo:
� POOL New / Reuters/ REUTERS
While Germany is phasing out nuclear energy, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced plans to build up to 14 new nuclear reactors.
By 2050, six new generation EPR reactors are to be built, said Macron in Belfort in eastern France.
The construction of eight more should be examined.
This means a "renaissance of nuclear power" in France, said the President.
Macron also advocated extending the lifetime of existing nuclear power plants "beyond 50 years" as long as there were no safety concerns.
Construction of the new nuclear power plants is scheduled to begin in 2028.
The first reactor could go online in 2035.
Investments in wind farms are also planned
In order to bridge the long construction period for the new nuclear power plants, France also wants to invest in renewable energies.
"Since it takes 15 years to build a reactor, we need to increase the share of renewable energy," Macron said.
That is why 50 offshore wind farms should be built.
So far, the coastal country has not yet had a functioning wind farm in the sea.
In France, renewable energy is seen as a bridging option: it is to be used while the country waits for new nuclear power plants to be built.
Unlike in Germany, where around eleven percent of the electricity generated was generated from nuclear energy in 2020, the energy supply of the French relies heavily on nuclear power: more than 70 percent of the electricity generated in 2020 was produced in nuclear power plants - France is in the EU -Comparison with it in first place, well ahead of Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria.
On average, 26 percent of the electricity generated in the European Union currently comes from nuclear energy.
At the beginning of February, the European Commission announced that it would classify gas and nuclear energy as sustainable in the future.
The decision caused fierce controversy.
Environmentalists protested sharply;
Austria announced a lawsuit against the inclusion of the two energy sources in the so-called Taxonomy Ordinance, should this come into force.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (both Green) confirmed the Federal Government's position against the inclusion of nuclear power, not least because the disposal and storage of the radioactive nuclear waste is still unclear.
However, Germany had agreed to the classification of gas as sustainable.
sol/AFP/Reuters
