In India, EDF on the way to build 6 EPR at a time, the largest nuclear power plant in the world

[Article published on 23.04.2021 at 9:36 am and updated at 12:30 with the global context of the nuclear sector]

While France currently has 59 reactors spread over 19 nuclear sites, imagine the hexagon powered by electricity by a single nuclear site.It is exactly the EDF project in India which intends to build a gigantic central comprising 6 EPRs and capable of fueling 70 million households alone.Clearly: the largest nuclear power plant in the world.

Today Friday, this project, controversial and delayed for several years, has taken an important stage, has just announced the French energy company.

EDF has given the Indian public nuclear group "the French engaging technical and commercial offer for the construction of six (reactors)) EPR on the Jaitapur site", the French group announced in a statement.

This is not yet an agreement, but it's a crucial step.By engaging in this way, the French public group, alone in the running, gives the necessary basis to conclude an agreement within a few months.

A Franco-Indian cooperation project closely monitored

This would finally launch the construction of a site mentioned for more than a decade and closely monitored by the French and Indian authorities.

The first agreements had been signed under the French presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, at the time with the nuclear giant Areva of which EDF inherited on the one hand of the activities, but the Japanese disaster of Fukushima in 2011 had put a stroke there, as other major nuclear projects.

Since then, the two countries have relaunched the case in 2018 but, while construction was quickly to begin, an agreement was long long in coming, despite the support of the Indian government of Narendra Modi.

A controversial project (seismic risks, for fishing...))

The project, which aims to feed 70 million households with electricity, has been the subject for years of local oppositions of which, until recently, the Party in power in the State of Maharashtra where Jaitapur is located.

Critics focus on the risk of earthquakes in the state of Maharashtra, where JaiTapur is, and the consequences for local nuclear waste evacuation fishing.

For its part, EDF emphasizes social benefits, believing that the construction of the site will give a job to tens of thousands of people on site.

Global nuclear sector: a future so difficult to predict

For the nuclear energy sector, which currently provides 10% of world electricity, the crossing of a crucial step by EDF towards the signing of a contract of this importance is good news.But it is part of a very heckled global context.Between the countries which abandon it like Germany and those who accelerate like China, between the increase in costs and the constraints linked to the requirements of the energy transition, the future of this controversial sector is difficult to predict.

At the end of 2020, 412 reactors (compared to 429 in 2010)) were in service in 33 countries, for an installed power which however increased a little at 367.1 GW (gigawatts)) against 365.3 GW at the end of 2010, the new reactors tendingto be more powerful and efficient.

Over the decade 2011-2020, China concentrated 25 of the 57 bets of reactors identified around the world.

But Fukushima "was a deep shock for decision -makers in China, and this led, except for a brutal stop, to a considerable slowdown in nuclear ambitions in China," notes Mycle Schneider.

Four new countries have embarked on the atom over this period: Bangladesh, Belarus, United Arab Emirates and Turkey.Other countries - notably those which still depend on very polluting coal - also wish to get started (Poland)), or want to develop an already existing nuclear sector (Czech Republic)).

Conversely, Germany gave itself up to 2022 to get out of nuclear after the fukushima accident.Switzerland has decided the same, while maintaining certain sites immediately.Belgium is targeting an exit by 2025.

In addition to the inherent problems which he raises (security, waste...)), nuclear is increasingly competed by renewable energies, which have become cheap.And the sector was forced to adopt new safety measures after Fukushima, making it more expensive.

Wind and solar costs have dropped by 70% and 90% respectively over the 2009-2020 period, according to the LAZARD calculations.Over the same period, those in nuclear have increased by 33%, according to the same source.

Nuclear, however, still has its followers, who emphasize that it is a source of energy very little CO2 and pototable, that is to say which can be mobilized according to needs-reverse the wind or the sun.

The AIE regularly defends its role in the fight against global warming, alongside renewables."A series of technologies, comprising nuclear electricity, will be necessary for transitions to energies specific around the world", judges the agency, which advises developed countries on their energy policy.

Read also: Is nuclear power a lasting energy?Brussels postpones his decision

Read also: EDF wants nuclear contribution to be recognized in the fight against global warming

+82% and or -7% global nuclear capacity in 2050?

By 2050, the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA)) provides that global nuclear capacity could increase by 82% in its high hypothesis...or decline 7% in its low hypothesis.

After a certain race for gigantism with increasingly powerful reactors, the nuclear industry is very interested today in small modular reactors or SMR ("Small Modular Reactors")).

These are reactors whose power does not exceed by 300 megawatts (MW)), against more than 1.000 for current reactors.

Read also: why Nuward, the small modular reactor (SMR)) French, remains very promising

They are designed to be made as standard in the factory and then transported to the place of their exploitation.This concept, already applied in Russia, interests in particular the United States (which already hold the largest number of reactors in the world, all types combined)), France (which draws 70% of its electricity from the atom, world record)), and the United Kingdom.

Several countries are also working on fourth generation reactors, one of the objectives of which is in particular to minimize waste.

(with AFP))

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