The French government has balked on the mandate to name nuclear power plants that would be tagged for premature decommissioning to comply with the country's mandate of reducing its dependence on nuclear power from 75 percent to 50 percent.
Legislation passed in 2015 charted a path for France to reduce its reliance on nuclear power in a bill that included the expectation that renewable power sources was the next generation source of choice.
An Energy Ministry report issued Friday, however, stopped short of naming the plants that would have to close in order to push the mandate forward. The ministry was expected to issue a list of plants that would be shuttered. Instead, the ministry's report said that state-owned utility EDF would address the mandate with an energy plan expected in April of 2017.
Media reports have been quick to point out that a presidential election also takes place in April 2017, which means that the Energy Ministry had opted for a stall that might save the plants, given a new government could reverse the current mandate.
Media reports also indicate that the candidate who is leading in the polls, former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, has said he would work to reverse the mandate. His position is not isolated. Other conservatives in France agree that the plant closing mandate is the wrong approach.
Only one French nuclear power plant, Fessenheim, the oldest in the country, is scheduled for a review that might culminate in a decision to close it down. That decision will be made by the end of the year, the Energy Ministry report says.