“We no longer reason in the same way
,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told deputies on Thursday to explain the accelerated relaunch of nuclear energy decided by the government.
"We no longer reason in the same way since we now have a much more ambitious vision on the reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions and therefore on the needs for electricity production", justified Élisabeth Borne before a commission
of Assembly inquiry.
This commission, which aims according to its title
“to establish the reasons for the loss of sovereignty and energy independence of France”
, has been continuing its work since the autumn and will submit its report at the end of March.
Its deputies seek in particular to understand how France found itself in a situation of electricity shortage and had to import it from abroad this winter.
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“This is what led the President of the Republic to announce the launch of the six new
EPR (nuclear reactors).
This is what leads us today to request the study, in particular from the ASN (Nuclear Safety Authority) on the terms of extensions beyond fifty years of our nuclear reactors
, ”she added. .
She also insisted on the scenarios produced by the company managing the French electricity network RTE when the decision was taken, under François Hollande, to reduce the share of nuclear power in France and to close reactors, in particular Fessenheim in Alsace which effectively closed in 2020.
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“In 2014, the information that was available to me was RTE's forecast balance sheets”
which
“forecast a stable or declining trend in electricity consumption”
, she said.
"We can clearly see that we have since completely reassessed these scenarios (...) but at the time there was no alert on any risk to the security of supply
", she indicated, admitting :
"It makes the forecasts modest".
51 billion euros for the first six new reactors
She also affirmed that the decision to relaunch nuclear power had been taken on the basis of RTE's calculations
"showing that from an economic point of view as well as from a supply security point of view, a 100% renewable scenario does not was unsustainable
.
"
And no doubt, based on the scenarios that have been produced by RTE, we will be around a production of 50% electricity from renewable sources, 50% from nuclear sources", she said
.
At the end of 2021, RTE presented six scenarios ranging from 100% renewables in 2050 to a proactive development of nuclear power, presented as the cheapest option, around 10 to 20 billion euros less per year.
The revival of nuclear power should cost at least 51 billion euros for the first six new reactors and about as much for the extension beyond 40 years of existing reactors that can, excluding waste management.