France will build at least six new nuclear reactors in the decades to come, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, placing nuclear power at the heart of his country’s drive for carbon neutrality by 2050.
Highlights
- French President Emmanuel Macron says nuclear power is key to reaching carbon-neutrality by 2050.
- The first new reactor, an evolution of the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), would come online by 2035.
- France will also increase its solar power capacity tenfold by 2050 to more than 100 gigawatts (GW) EDF estimates the cost of six new reactors at about 50 billion euros ($57.36 billion) The announcement comes at a difficult time for debt-laden EDF, which is facing delays and budget over-runs on new nuclear plants in France and Britain, and corrosion problems in some of its ageing reactors.
- EDF’s EPR reactors have suffered a troubled history.