French government aims to cut red tape for new nuclear reactors

Energy giant EDF plans to construct the reactors on three existing sites: two at Penly, in the Seine-Maritime administrative department, two at Gravelines, in northern France, and two in either Bugey, eastern France, or Tricastin, in southern France. The government estimates the six new reactors will cost 51.7 billion euros ($51.2 billion).

France has drafted legislation to streamline bureaucracy for administrative permits needed to build new nuclear power plants, as it aims to double down on its nuclear and renewable energy facilities amid a global energy crunch. "The challenge is huge. We must move much more quickly and more strongly," Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher wrote on Twitter ahead of a cabinet meeting that will adopt the draft bill on Wednesday.

President Emmanuel Macron has put nuclear power at the heart of his country's drive for carbon neutrality by 2050, with plans to build at least six new reactors. An energy ministry official said in September the aim was to start construction of the first next generation EPR2 reactor before the end of the presidential term, before May 2027.

France's nuclear fleet has come under scrutiny, with a wave of repairs at power stations forcing a record number of reactors offline and sending nuclear power production to a 30-year low, exacerbating Europe's energy crisis. "The goal is that administrative authorisations are delivered within delays that allow us to meet the construction timetable of the EPR (European Pressurized Reactors)," Pannier-Runacher told Les Echos newspaper.

"It is a draft law to ease administrative authorisations on nuclear reactors that will be built near existing nuclear plants," she said, adding this concerned administrative issues, not the decisions to build the plants. Energy giant EDF plans to construct the reactors on three existing sites: two at Penly, in the Seine-Maritime administrative department, two at Gravelines, in northern France, and two in either Bugey, eastern France, or Tricastin, in southern France.

The government estimates the six new reactors will cost 51.7 billion euros ($51.2 billion). ($1 = 1.0107 euros)