The stakes of the nuclear industry

The French nuclear sector must address three challenges: the country’s energy and industrial sovereignty, the sector’s competitiveness within Europe, and the fight against climate change (including electrification). The 2025–2028 Strategic Sector Contract provides the framework for the nuclear revival.

A revival under way since 2022

The Belfort speech set the main orientations for the revival of French nuclear power. Successive Nuclear Policy Councils (CPN) have since confirmed and supplemented them:

• Extension of the existing fleet’s operating life to 60 years and beyond ;
• The EPR2 programme, with three pairs of reactors at Penly, Gravelines and Bugey, a first commissioning scheduled for 2038, and eight additional reactors as an option ;
• Support for small modular reactors and advanced modular reactors (SMRs/AMRs) under France 2030 ;
• Closing the fuel cycle through the development of Generation IV reactors ;
• Renewal of the fuel cycle plants, through Orano’s Aval du Futur programme at La Hague (recycling and storage of spent fuel) ;
• Decommissioning of shut-down facilities and radioactive waste management, including deep geological disposal (Cigéo).

The three challenges of the nuclear revival

Industrial performance: building on schedule, within budget and to the expected quality standards (EPR2, SMRs, fleet operation), and building a robust, competitive and collaborative supply chain ;

Skills and employment: a target of 10,000 hires per year (100,000 over ten years, two thirds of them technicians), through initial training, work-study programmes and career transitions, with attention to the attractiveness of nuclear careers and to gender balance ;

Financing: securing an EPR2 programme estimated at €72.8 billion (2020 values), based on a State-subsidised loan covering 60% of the cost and a 40-year contract for difference, subject to approval by the European Commission and to EDF’s final investment decision, expected at the end of 2026.