This is the equivalent of a show of resistance — if not exactly a revolt — in the parking lot of a retirement home, which happens to be in Paris, France.
French nuclear power giant Electricite de France SA said it would seek to extend the lives of most of its aging power plants, including the Dungeness B reactor in Kent, England, with total investments of up to $64.8 billion.
The commitment to its existing plants was made by EDF Chairman Jean-Bernard Levy at a Senate hearing. He said two to six reactors of EDF's 58 nuclear plants in France may be closed, although he did not want to be nailed down to a specific number.
In response, at a press conference Tuesday, the head of the French Regulator Autorite de Surete Nucleaire Pierre-Franck Chevet warned that it was not “a given” that the power plants would be granted licensing extensions. He said new reactors “have better safety guarantees than existing ones whose lives are prolonged,” adding the window of opportunity for extensions was fleeting. “The calendar is very tight,” he said.
Levy, who took the reins of EDF in November, had told a Senate panel that he was, “confident in the ability of EDF and its partners to safely prolong the lives of the fleet to 50 even 60 years,” noting that France has a $2.4 billion surplus from energy exports, which came to between 8 percent and 9 percent of ELF's total production.
The executive also said that France imports German power and sells this at a profit to Britain, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, Reuters reported.
"The weight of German subsidies for renewables, and coal, is such that the German end consumer pays, via his green taxes, a subsidy to the French consumer," he said.
At the hearing, he confirmed the company's commitment to an enormous investment in maintenance and upgrades in its nuclear fleet.
Dungeness B is a case in point. It employs 550 people with additional hiring of 200 temporary workers when the need arises. Construction began in 1965, but it took until 1983 before it began its life as a commercial power plant.
EDF Energy Chief Executive Officer Vincent de Rivas confirmed the company' s intention to keep Dungeness B going for an additional decade, which would involve an investment of $226 million.
Its predecessor Dungeness A was decommissioned in 2006. EDF owns eight nuclear power stations in Britain and they will all remain viable through 2023, ThisIsMoney.co reported.