Jean-Hervé Lorenzi on the future of the French nuclear program

Brief

December 03, 2002

Speaking through Radio Classic Affaires, Jean-Hervé Lorenzi, professor at the University of Paris-Dauphine, gave this opinion on the future of the French nuclear program to the Circle of Economists on 28 November: "The future? Bright, very bright! But France should not be compared to the rest of the world. Nuclear power is still the cheapest form of energy in France because of the economies of scale, which keeps electric rates down. Replacing existing reactors, were that to be decided, would probably occur much later than planned now that power plants in France and the United States have a longer service life, and it would most likely be only partial because there will be more distributed, networked systems available to supplement the big power plants of today. The advantages of nuclear power are well-known: low greenhouse effect, energy self-sufficiency, and security of supply.