France’s lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, voted in favour of the government’s nuclear power plan with a large majority on Tuesday (21 March), heralding what the energy minister said was the start of “the immense project” of relaunching the country’s nuclear industry.
The nuclear plan, whose key plank is the planned construction of six new nuclear reactors, was approved on its first reading with 402 votes in favour and 130 against.
The plan says the first pair of EPR2 reactors in the new fleet would be built at the existing Penly nuclear power station, 10 km from Dieppe in northern France.
The plan aims to accelerate the construction of new nuclear power plants by cutting bureaucracy. The government has said it wants to streamline the administrative processes needed to approve and build new plants.
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