What happens in France about nuclear energy
Giuseppe Gagliano's article on the closure of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in France
“In the night between Monday 29 June and Tuesday 30, the Alsatian nuclear power plant in Fessenheim definitively ceased operations before being dismantled. Located on the banks of the Rhine, close to Germany and Switzerland, France's oldest power plant has stopped producing electricity forever. It is expected to be dismantled over the next fifteen years, starting with the removal of the highly radioactive fuel, which, according to the program, will be completed in 2023 ”.
The closure was hailed as a success of the environmental struggle. For many years, in fact, numerous anti-nuclear activists have carried out non-violent demonstrations and lobbying action on the French authorities to close the Fessenheim nuclear power plant to which pro-nuclear activists have responded provocatively.
At first it was expected that this closure should be synchronized, so to speak, with the launch of the third plant in Flamanville.
But the completion date has been postponed due to new problems to 2023. So how to produce the 12.32 TWh produced in 2019 by the nuclear power plant?
It is more than naïve to bet on mega solar farms or wind turbines. The planned massive installation of a solar panel in the Upper Rhine to replace Fessenheim would provide only 17% of the plant's power. It is important to note that the region's sunshine has a percentage of 13%.
To continue and to compensate for this sudden loss of energy, EDF will have to turn to thermal power plants. The latter weigh heavily in carbon production compared to their nuclear counterparts. Where nuclear electricity emits only 6 g of CO2 per KWH, that produced by gas emits between 500 and 1000 g of CO2 produced by coal energy.
Even if it is necessary to believe in renewable energy sources such as wind, solar or hydroelectric, a realistic attitude must be taken: the mirage of this transition does not take into account many elements.
To name just one, the offshoring of pollution. In fact, in order to have green electricity, it is necessary to import solar panels or wind turbines. Goods produced overwhelmingly in the People's Republic of China in a very polluting way and requiring raw materials extracted in the same way and under humane conditions.
It would therefore be more realistic and above all more ecological to talk about energy complementarity, where renewable energy sources simultaneously produce nuclear power plants, reducing the share of carbon-based electricity.
Starting from the historical observation that both civil and military nuclear power has given France authority and credibility both in the context of energy autonomy and in that of international politics, the French case exemplifies how fundamentalisms in the ecological field lead governments to choices that end up damaging their energy autonomy and above all global competition.
In this regard, the interview given by the former director of the nuclear plant Joël Bultel is of great interest, refuting numerous clichés. According to the former director, following the German model would seriously damage France.
First, German plants produce nearly 10 times more CO2 than the French system in which consumers pay around 75% more for their electricity than their French counterparts. It is an energy model with very high costs: we are talking about over 500 billion euros.
Replacing a technology that produces what is actually needed with another technology that produces intermittently depending on the weather conditions means degrading energy autonomy.
Secondly, the closure of this plant was actually dictated by purely political reasons and this closure will be paid very dearly by consumers: almost half a billion euros in the short term and several billion cumulative (between 4 and 7 for an average price of electricity market between 40 and 50 € / MWh) for the next 20 years to compensate for the damage.
Thirdly – the director points out – this plant was actually functioning and could have continued to produce low-cost electricity for another twenty years. In fact, the French Court of Auditors underlined the serious economic damage that such a closure will cause.
Fourthly, this story demonstrates for the umpteenth time the increasingly important and relevant role of environmental associations and NGOs in influencing the energy policy choices of governments and on the other hand demonstrates the weakness of the political class which for reasons of political consensus – certainly not out of conviction – it favors these choices.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/che-cosa-succede-in-francia-sullenergia-nucleare/ on Thu, 18 Feb 2021 05:40:05 +0000.