OilVoice - French Next-generation Nuclear to Receive Billion-euro Boost

French Next-generation Nuclear to Receive Billion-euro Boost

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Next-generation nuclear is to receive a billion-euro boost thanks to a French investment program. Meanwhile the country's main nuclear research body has been re-branded.

Initial details of a spending plan worth €35 billion ($51 billion) were announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday. It is meant to address a decline in the productivity of the French workforce since the 1980s by supporting the development of new technologies in partnership with small and medium-sized companies.

Funded by loans from the international markets and the repayment of emergency loans by banks, the largest part of the spending is €7.7 billion ($11 billion) to establish centres of research excellence.

The portion on sustainable development included €1.5 billion ($2.2 billion) to support and demonstrate new energy technology including carbon capture with geologic storage. Another €1 billion ($1.4 billion) is earmarked to bring together researchers and business in five to ten public-private institutes. The government announcement said that there was equal investment for nuclear and renewables in its plans, in line with commitments.

Some €1 billion was dedicated to Generation IV nuclear power reactors, which official documents noted would be even safer and use less uranium than current designs. There are as yet no details of timescales or potential projects, but one possibility could be a demonstration of the Antares high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, which Areva has previously proposed. Older documents from the company promoted a program to develop a commercially competitive model of the 600 MWt modular design which could be suitable for process hear applications such as hydrogen production.

The CEA is renamed The CEA
Another move under France's "commitment to absolute parity" for investment in nuclear and renewables is the rebranding of the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (Atomic Energy Commission, CEA).

Having long been a leader in renewable and alternative energy research, the organisation is from now on to be known as the Commission of Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy - for which French officials have decided to use the same initials, CEA.

Sarkozy said: "The CEA has technological expertise unsurpassed in the nuclear field, but this also allows it to be at the forefront of global research in solar, biofuels and storage of energy... Tomorrow, I hope it still deepens the guidelines for other low-carbon energy forms."

Source: WNN