France is recognized for being a hotbed of culture, gastronomy and style. The country is also a kind of world leader in another field: nuclear energy.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, France has 56 nuclear reactors in operation, second only to the United States, which has 94.
Together, these French facilities have a combined capacity of 61,370 megawatts (MW). And when it comes to the share of nuclear energy in France’s electricity production, the IAEA says it was 70.6% in 2019, the largest in the world.
Below, CNBC’s “Sustainable Energy” takes a look at the role that nuclear power can play in the energy future of France and the world at large.
An important player
Peter Osbaldstone, director of research at the research group Wood Mackenzie, told CNBC via email that France was “by far the largest nuclear power generator in Europe”.
“The intensity of emissions from French electricity is less than that of its main neighbors, the market having a relatively small share of the overall supply served by fossil fuels,” he explained.
“With the low marginal cost nuclear power being so prominent in the mix, wholesale energy prices in France tend to be lower than in neighboring markets,” he added, noting that this factor also influenced prices to the final consumer, who they were also comparatively low.
Andrew Lever, director of Carbon Trust, a consulting firm, told CNBC that France “enjoyed a low dependency on fossil-based power generation”.
“Therefore, from a carbon reduction perspective, it is starting from a lower base point compared to other economies that depend more on fossil fuel-based generation,” he added.
Macron’s Mission
Last December, French President Emmanuel Macron signaled that nuclear power would continue to play an important role in the country’s energy matrix.
According to a translation of his comments published by Reuters, Macron said the French nuclear industry “would remain the cornerstone of our strategic autonomy”.
Macron’s comments suggest that France will continue its relationship with nuclear power for a long time to come, but the change is taking place. In fact, by 2035, the government wants to reduce the share of nuclear energy in its electrical matrix to 50%. A mixed image, then.
For his part, Wood Mackenzie’s Osbaldstone said the 50% target does not mean that the technology has fallen completely out of favor, noting that in 2019 the French government “instructed EDF to explore the possibility of building six new reactors in three local “. The utility, he added, “is expected to respond in mid-2021”.
The challenges of decarbonisation
The International Energy Agency says that “nuclear energy has historically been one of the largest contributors to carbon-free electricity worldwide” and adds that it also has “significant potential to contribute to the decarbonisation of the energy sector”.
It should be noted, however, that although the IEA says it produces carbon-free electricity, many consider nuclear energy to be a non-renewable source. This is because they argue that uranium, the crucial metal for nuclear power generation, will eventually run out.
Lever, from the Carbon Trust, told CNBC that, for any economy, the level of investment needed to decarbonize the energy supply was “massive”.
And while the cost of renewable technologies like photovoltaic solar and onshore and offshore wind energy has enjoyed “a substantial reduction”, the same cannot be said for the “new nuclear” where there was “a consistent lack of reduction in costs “.
“From a new construction perspective, there are risks of delays in construction and cost management, which in turn pose risks to the transition cost and, ultimately, energy costs for consumers,” said Lever.
“In addition, the potentially high costs of decommissioning and waste disposal mean that a major risk in the future is that nuclear power will become a relatively expensive and unsustainable technology compared to renewable-based alternatives.”
France seems determined to maintain a close relationship with nuclear power in the future, but its neighboring Germany is taking a different path.
In response to the Fukushima disaster in 2011, when a powerful earthquake and tsunami resulted in the collapse of the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government developed plans to close the country’s nuclear plants by the end of 2022.
Last week, Reuters reported that Germany had agreed to pay four companies – Vattenfall, RWE, E.ON and EnBW – a total compensation of almost 2.6 billion euros (about $ 3.09 billion) for closing advance of its nuclear plants.
Criticism and concerns
Although Macron appears to be supporting nuclear power, it goes without saying that technology is not everyone’s favorite.
Critics include Greenpeace. “Nuclear energy is considered a solution to our energy problems, but in reality it is complex and extremely expensive to build”, says the website of the environmental organization.
“It also creates large amounts of hazardous waste,” he adds. “Renewable energy is cheaper and can be installed quickly. Along with storing the battery, it can generate the energy we need and reduce our emissions.”
The global image
As governments around the world seek to move away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources, the debate over the role of nuclear energy in the planet’s energy matrix will continue.
Last month, Bill Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder and billionaire, told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that nuclear power would be “absolutely” politically acceptable again. Gates is also the founder and president of TerraPower, a company focused on nuclear innovation.
So, is the transition from fossil to renewable fuels possible without nuclear?
“Any low-emission source, like nuclear, can, of course, play a role in the energy transition,” said Wood Mackenzie’s Osbaldstone, before moving on to outline some of the challenges ahead.
“Although nuclear construction costs are high, the technology requires strong political support and regulatory structures in host countries,” he added, explaining that the generators were “typically large and relatively inflexible in operation – these features reduce the number of possible applications. for nuclear power. “
The new technology, including small modular reactors, or SMRs, “could go some way to address these deficiencies, potentially opening up a bigger role for the source. But SMRs remain very much on the drawing board at the moment.”