Thread by @EnergyJvd

Major Dutch weekly @ewmagazinenl published a very important interview with @BernardAccoyer yesterday, highlighting the #French antinuclear establishment.

Yes, France is ruled by the antinuclear lobby!

I decided to post a translation of the article, here:
docs.google.com/document/d/1eP…

https://twitter.com/EnergyJvd/status/1578858126870482944

Half of the French nuclear power stations are offline. That is unprecedented. According to Bernard Accoyer (77), former president of the French House of Representatives, this is mainly due to green ideologues.

He formulates calmly and in a professorial manner, but does not shy from strong statements. Because the matter is extremely serious, believes Bernard Accoyer, who was chairman of the Assemblee Nationale, the French House of Representatives, between 2007 and 2021.

In France, no less than 70 percent of electricity comes from nuclear power plants – unique worldwide. France produces an abundance of cheap, fossil-free energy, much of which is sold abroad.

At least that's how it was until recently. The nuclear park of 18 generating stations (56 reactors) is currently working at half power and France even imports electricity from German coal-fired stations. Power outages on very cold days are not out of the question this winter.

The government puts the blame for the malaise on its own energy company Électricité de France (EDF), which allegedly did not have the maintenance planning in order. "But that's nonsense," Accoyer says.

"Our nuclear industry has been weakened by a war waged for decades by a cabal of green politicians, civil servants, and activists."

EW: EDF boss Jean-Bernard Lévy and President Emmanuel Macron accuse each other of being responsible for the malaise. Who's right?

Accoyer: 'Lévy, that's clear. Every year, some reactors are shut down before the winter for maintenance. What makes the situation special is that rust has been found in pipes of the safety system of a number of plants, so the inactive part of the fleet is now larger than normal.

That rust has nothing to do with age, it's a problem related to the shape of those tubes. You have to be prepared for these kinds of unforeseen events and we were not.'

EW: Why not?

Accoyer: 'Since 2012, we have closed several coal-fired power stations and one nuclear power station. As a result, we lost 12 gigawatts of capacity, 15 percent of the total. If we still had that, there would be no problem now. So now we pay a high price for our symbol politics.

Those coal-fired power stations were almost never used anyway, they were used to get through peak hours in the winter. And the closure of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in Alsace in 2020 - good for almost 2 gigawatts - is a major scandal.'

EW: It was the oldest nuclear plant, they kept saying. As if it was about to fall apart.

Accoyer: 'Fessenheim was put into use in 1977, but it could have lasted at least another twenty years. According to Autorité de Surete Nucleaire, the French nuclear watchdog, the power station was in top condition.'

EW: How could this happen?

Accoyer: 'France has stopped investing in nuclear energy for thirty years. Since the 1990s, we have only built power stations abroad. An exception is Flamanville in Normandy, where work is underway on a prototype of the third-generation reactors.

Things have stagnated because the anti-atomic camp is in charge. Successive Ministers of the Environment - later Energy Transition - were often against nuclear energy and they could count on the support of many civil servants and activists from organizations such as Greenpeace.'

EW: You call that an anti-nuclear sect. Why?

Accoyer: 'Because this group operates as a sect: they lie, cheat and coerce like it is second nature. Their people are everywhere, in all crucial positions. For example, they lead the grid operator RTE, and CRE, the committee that oversees the energy market.'

EW: Did left-wing governments in particular give in to the pressure?

Accoyer: 'Look at the important moments in this battle. In 1997 the curtain fell for SuperPhénix, a reactor of the fourth generation. Why? Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin needed the support of the Greens.

We lost a twenty-year lead we had with this technology, where spent fuel is recycled and very little nuclear waste remains. François Hollande, president from 2012 to 2017, ...

... sacrificed Fessenheim in exchange for partnering with the Greens of EELV (Europe Ecologie Les Verts) and promised that nuclear power would decrease its share of the electricity mix. It had to go from 70 to 50 percent. Fourteen reactors would have to close to achieve that.'

EW: And Emmanuel Macron?

Accoyer: 'Macron couldn't do without the Greens either. He sealed the fate of Fessenheim and also stopped the Astrid-program, an experimental breeder reactor, in 2019. Breeders, AKA fourth generation reactors, are the cornerstone of the nuclear edifice of the future.

With this, France - hold on to your hat - could meet its own needs for the next two thousand years with the depleted uranium that we already have.

'Early this year, Macron converted. He has announced six new nuclear reactors, with an option on eight more. One can't keep denying the reality - without nuclear energy we have nothing against climate change.'

EW: Can we say the tide is turning?

Accoyer: 'Public opinion has changed, policy has changed. But the anti-nuclears are still there and fourteen new reactors is not enough, in my opinion.

'At the same time, the government is focusing on much more wind and sun, but that is always accompanied by more gas-fired power stations. Because windmills and solar panels are of no use if there is no wind or if the sun does not shine.'
/END