Marcoule must still wait to find out if his site will host a “small” SMR nuclear reactor

Le site nucléaire de Marcoule dans le Gard. – MiKAEL ANISSET

Le  conseil de politique nucléaire qui s'est tenu ce lundi sous l'autorité d'Emmanuel Macron n'a pas encore acté de décision définitive relative au déploiement de ces "petits" réacteurs.

Marcoule and the Rhone Gard will still have to wait for confirmation that the site will indeed host the first SMR nuclear reactor (for "small modular reactors"), these so-called “small" and whose power would not go beyond 300 megawatts (compared to 1500 MW for the EPR).

A decision relating to the deployment of these "mini-power plants" was in fact expected at the start of the week, during the meeting of a nuclear policy council (CPN). Which was finally held this Monday under the authority of Emmanuel Macron, the third of its kind after those of January and July 2023.

"Small, innovative reactors" still current

But if "this council made it possible to review the main subjects of nuclear policy", as we were told this Tuesday September 27 in the entourage of the Elysée, no choice was made concerning the SMR .

The CPN, on the other hand, "took note of u strengthening of the production of the existing nuclear fleet by 2030. He also addressed the subject "of the development of small innovative reactors", more relevant than ever, therefore.

An answer in September ?

It remains to be seen when the hoped-for announcement will come (a two-billion-euro investment project for 4,000 jobs) in Gard. "The next CPN will be organized in the fall of 2024 and will notably provide an opportunity to take stock of the progress of the directions taken during this CPN, as well as on small reactors innovative " has it been clarified to us. Even if nothing prevents the Head of State from speaking on the subject before this deadline.

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