PARIS–France’s oldest nuclear plant Fessenheim, in the east of the country bordering Germany, won’t be dismantled until 2018 at the earliest due to the plant’s lengthy closing procedures, the French government mediator for the shut down of Fessenheim Francis Rol-Tanguy said in an interview with French daily Les Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace.
The closing of Fessenheim is seen as a litmus test for French President Francois Hollande’s ability to reform the country’s strategy on energy which heavily relies on its nuclear capacities. By law only the operator of a power plant or France’s nuclear regulator can decide to shut down a reactor.
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Mr. Rol-Tanguy, who has been appointed by the government to talk with local employees’ representatives and prepare the shutting down of the plant, noted that a government-led bill to initiate France’s so-called “energy transition” would include a limit on volumes of nuclear-produced power in France. As EDF is currently building a new-generation nuclear reactor in Normandy–which should start producing in 2016–this would indirectly mean EDF needs to shut other nuclear capacities, like Fessenheim.
Read more at EDF : Fessenheim Nuclear Plant Dismantlement Not Until 2018 – Report
