Europe is on the way to challenge China! After USA and UK, Now France unveils nuclear power overhaul – with an eye on China
_Vinayak Barot
The Untrustworthy nation China is challenging many nations including India at the border, the US with trade, Japan with island issues with its unnecessary agendas. Many nations developing mutual understanding and create strategic relations with strong nations to face the challenges created by the Beijing government in the last few years.
A few days back – The British government got permission to park its submarines at an Australian base, which was like someone come with the machinegun to fight the pistol. Now France unveiled nuclear power overhaul – with an eye on China
French President Emmanuel Macron announced a shift to small modular nuclear reactors on Tuesday as he unveiled his €30 billion, five-year strategy to bolster France’s high-tech sectors, building on the country’s history as a pioneer of nuclear energy. Analysts hail the technology as highly promising, especially in the face of Chinese competition.
Macron announced that the “number one priority” for his industrial strategy was for France to develop “innovative small-scale nuclear reactors” by 2030.
Most countries lack the means to pull of these massive reactors, noted Nicolas Mazzucchi, an energy specialist at France’s Foundation for Strategic Research: “The financing models they require – not to mention the capacity to mobilize a country’s savoir-faire in this domain – are increasingly rare, except in nations like Russia and China where energy companies have total state backing.”
Consequently, switching to small modular reactors is a strategic pivot to allow France to deal with competition from countries like China, which has increasingly big ambitions when it comes to nuclear power.
France’s change of approach could also allow it to win lucrative new markets. “By 2025, nearly a quarter of the world’s existing nuclear capacity will be exhausted because the reactors will have become too old,” Mazzucchi continued.
A further reason why small nuclear reactors could be a French export bonanza is that they can be used for crucial purposes other than energy generation. “It’s a very flexible form of technology,” Locatelli said.
“These reactors can be used for water desalination – a highly important task in places like the Middle East and even India – as well as to produce hydrogen to heat homes in colder parts of the world,” Mazzucchi pointed out.
In theory, small reactors are also likely to be safer than traditional large reactors. Japan’s Fukushima accident in 2011 dented nuclear energy’s reputation for safety – then the Taishan incident in China in July showed that technical problems can also assail the most modern reactors.
By definition, small reactors “contain less nuclear material, which in theory gives them the potential to be safer”, noted Karine Herviou, deputy director in charge of nuclear safety at France’s Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety. This can “limit” the release of radioactive substances in the event of an accident – in addition to the safety measures that will be in place, Herviou continued.
In particular, procedures tailored to small reactors can allow operators to “get rid of the residual power produced by the reactor after a shutdown”, Herviou added. It was this residual power that caused the reactor cores to melt at Fukushima and during the Three Mile Island incident in the US in 1979.
