“It’s about not wasting any time,” Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher said at the start of the debate. According to the planned law, construction work can already start on the outbuildings of a reactor while the public discussion about the construction project is still ongoing.
In the future, the building of new reactors will no longer require approvals from the municipal level, as the state is supposed to monitor compliance with the standards. This does not mean that security, the protection of biodiversity or public participation will be restricted, said the minister.
Former French President François Hollande pushed through in 2015 that France should reduce the share of nuclear power to 50 percent. For this purpose, 14 nuclear power plants should be taken off the grid. In fact, the two oldest nuclear reactors in Fessenheim were shut down.
However, President Emmanuel Macron changed the strategy a year ago and announced the construction of up to 14 new nuclear reactors. They are intended to be similar to the only EPR reactor still under construction in Flamanville, but with a simplified blueprint.
The new reactors are to be built in pairs at the site of existing nuclear power plants. The first two are to be built in Penly, the next two in Gravelines, each on the coast of the English Channel.
The law will go to the National Assembly in March, which in turn can still amend the text. However, the text already provoked strong reactions. The French branch of the environmental organization Greenpeace called the changes introduced by the senators “scandalous”. Later in the year there is also a law on the broad lines of energy policy.
