The Fessenheim plant is in its final hours on Monday. Others will soon follow, the government having committed to a reduction in the share of nuclear power. But which energy sources will take over? Are there risks of supply? Euronews has investigated the challenges and questions posed by such a transition.
It is the oldest power station in France which is still operating at full capacity. After forty years of existence, the Bugey power station, located east of Lyon, still represents 2,000 jobs and 7% of national nuclear production. But within fifteen years, two of its four reactors may well be shutdown.
A perspective that Jean-Pierre Collet considers insufficient. This activist of “Sortir du nuclear” has lived in the shadow of the power plant for years and calls for its total and immediate dismantling.
“What mobilizes us is the impact on health,” he says. “The plant constantly emits radioactivity and we don’t necessarily know it because of course it is invisible,” he says. “And then there is the problem of nuclear waste, there are plans to bury it, but it is there for an eternity and we do not know how to reprocess it,” adds the activist.
In 2019, weaknesses have been identified by the Nuclear Safety Authority in terms of radioactivity and waste management. Contacted by euronews, EDF replied that any deviation is the subject of work and that any risk would lead to the shutdown of the power plants.
“In the event of an accident, there would be a major risk for residents in France and elsewhere”
But how long can Europe’s first nuclear fleet last? A total of 14 nuclear reactors out of the 57 currently in operation are scheduled to be closed by 2035 while the last coal-fired power plants will be closed by 2022.
The government’s objective is to increase the share of nuclear power from 70 to 50% and to increase that of renewable energies to around 40%. A promise made by two successive presidents following the Fukushima disaster of 2011, which had a strong impact on public opinion and sparked debate across the country.
Car if a nuclear power station emits little CO2 compared to coal, gas or even hydroelectric according to figures from the IPCC, it is the age of these plants that poses a risk to the surroundings for the inhabitants and for the environment, according to environmental associations like Greenpeace.
“Near the Bugey power station, at a distance of around 30 km, there are more than a million inhabitants,” points out Roger Spautz, Greenpeace nuclear campaigner. “So in the event of an accident, there would be a major risk for residents in France, but also for neighboring countries.”
Will renewable energies suffice?
But ultimately, what sources of energy can sustainably and effectively replace nuclear power? Will renewable energies be sufficient? We asked EDF the question.
“We have a very important objective of deploying solar and wind power, so when we are 50% from nuclear power and 50% from renewable energy, with controlled energy consumption, we will be able to meet the needs French”, ensures Carine de Boissezon, director of sustainable development at EDF.
Thus, renewable energies would be a source of energy diversification with its advantages, but also limits. “Costs have dropped significantly over the past ten years, but unlike nuclear, renewable energies are less controllable since they depend on climatic vagaries”, emphasizes Carine de Boissezon.
Counterproductive effects?
Another source of concern is the drop in exports of energy produced by nuclear power. France is the leading exporter of electricity in Europe. But for some experts, too large a fall in the share of nuclear energy in the energy mix could have counterproductive effects.
“Peaks of electricity consumption in France generally take place in February at 7 p.m. when it is dark: so since we cannot count on solar energy, we have nuclear power“, explains Valérie Faudon, General Delegate of the Société Française d’Energie Nucléaire (SFEN).“We can have wind, but we can also have no wind that day: in this case, we can import,” she says. “There are times when there will be different sources of electricity, but we can say that on average over the year, it is rather the gas plants that will replace us,” she says.
With risks, according to some experts, seeing CO2 emissions increase in the long term. It will all depend on what our neighbors do and the speed at which they try to move into a Europe where energy is interconnected.
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