France wants Switzerland to help foot the bill for its new nuclear power plants. And it will also be Italy’s turn
France wants Switzerland to help foot the bill for the construction of six new nuclear power plants by 2050, the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper reports.
The energy produced by the French plants will be exported to neighboring countries, so France believes that the latter should help pay for their construction.
According to NZZ am Sonntag, this idea was proposed by French Foreign Ministry officials during a briefing with European journalists at the end of March.
“France deems it appropriate that countries that do not want to equip themselves with new nuclear power plants, but wish to import nuclear energy from France, contribute to the construction costs of the new nuclear power plants planned in France,” an official was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Further investigations confirmed that this message also applies to Switzerland, which in 2011 decided to phase out its nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
In 2017, 58% of Swiss citizens validated this decision when they voted for the gradual decommissioning of the country's five existing nuclear power plants, a ban on building new ones and the adoption of a new law – Energy Strategy 2050 – which promotes renewable energy.
Mixed reactions in Switzerland. And in Italy?
France's financing proposal was met with mixed reactions in Switzerland.
The “Stop the Blackout” initiative committee, which wants to lift the ban on building nuclear power plants in Switzerland, said it was a good idea to “keep all options open” that could “strengthen energy security.”
But major Swiss energy supplier Alpiq has expressed strong opposition. “Alpiq is not interested in investing in new French nuclear power plants,” a spokesperson said.
Be careful that France could also present the bill to Italy, which, at present, will not build new nuclear power plants. Will France, i.e. EDF, a French state company, try to force the Italian government to co-finance its power plants? It would be a huge economic blow because our taxes would go to finance French public spending.
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The article France wants Switzerland to help foot the bill for its new nuclear power plants. And it will also be Italy's turn comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-francia-vuole-che-la-svizzera-contribuisca-a-pagare-il-conto-delle-proprie-nuove-centrali-nucleari-e-tocchera-anche-allitalia/ on Mon, 08 Apr 2024 06:00:19 +0000.