France abandons research into fourth-generation nuclear reactors
Energy — di Andrea Barolini
The newspaper Le Monde has revealed that research into fourth-generation nuclear reactors has been abandoned, largely owing to the exorbitant costs.
France abandons research into fourth-generation nuclear reactors
The newspaper Le Monde has revealed that research into fourth-generation nuclear reactors has been abandoned, largely owing to the exorbitant costs.
France will not pursue research into fourth-generation nuclear reactors. Following the serious problems encountered with the EPRs, both in terms of technical difficulties and in terms of exploding costs and delays, the nuclear sector will not see the development of what was supposed to represent the future of the industry — namely, the fast neutron reactor (FNR) known as "Astrid".
#Nucléaire : la France abandonne la quatrième génération de réacteurs. Un coup dur pour l’avenir de la filière. lemonde.fr/economie/artic…
"The Astrid project is dead"
The revelation comes from the French newspaper Le Monde, which explains how the Commissariat for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (Cea) is "abandoning the idea. Only a few preliminary studies currently under way will continue this year, but they will be shelved".
The information gathered by the Parisian daily was confirmed by the Cea itself, which stated: "The project to build a fourth-generation reactor prototype is not planned for either the short or the medium term." Even more plainly, an anonymous source within the organisation said that "Astrid is dead. Neither resources nor energy are being invested in it any longer."
Didier Guillaume, the Cfdt trade union delegate at the Commissariat, also confirmed having "seen the preliminary projects being blocked one by one." Despite this, the amount of money invested in a project that reached its end before ever seeing the light of day is enormous. According to the French Court of Auditors, by the end of 2017 allocations had already reached 738 million euros.
Research into new nuclear reactors has already cost 738 million euros
The Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration (hence the acronym Astrid) was to have been built at the Marcoule nuclear site, not far from Avignon. The aim was to use plutonium and depleted uranium as fuel — in other words, to find a way to recycle the waste from energy production generated by France's current (and increasingly ageing) nuclear fleet.
This radioactive material is largely stored at the La Hague storage site on the English Channel. With Astrid, France's nuclear scientists hoped not only to turn currently unused materials into fuel, but also to substantially reduce the volume of nuclear waste.
The 11-billion-euro EPR at Flamanville remains under construction
This path had already been attempted in the 1990s with the Superphénix reactor being studied at Creys Malville (in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region). But the project was shut down in 1997 by the socialist government of Jospin. Research was subsequently relaunched by the conservatives Chirac and Sarkozy, as well as by the socialist Hollande.
Developing Astrid, however, would have required between 5 and 10 billion euros. This forced the Cea to backtrack, also taking into account the latest Multi-Year Energy Plan, which put a tombstone on the project: "An FNR prototype is not considered useful at least until the second half of the century."
Read also: Nuclear energy, another setback for the never-ending construction of France's Flamanville reactor
The third-generation reactor at Flamanville, on the English Channel, nevertheless remains under construction — despite being ten years behind its original schedule. It was supposed to have been inaugurated in 2012, yet it will not be ready before 2022. In terms of costs, the initial estimate of 3.3 billion euros has risen to a current budget of 11 billion, and continues to climb.