A public debate will be launched from September 17 to January 17 around ten themes. Local residents and inhabitants of large cities around the project are called upon to give their opinion.
The public debate on the construction of two EPR nuclear reactors in Gravelines, near Dunkirk (North), in the context of the revival of nuclear power, will be held from September 17 to January 17, announced this Tuesday, September 10, the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP), which hopes for a “strong participation”.
This debate is the second organized by the CNDP after that of 2022-2023 on the project of a first pair of reactors in Penly (Seine-Maritime) and more generally on the revival of the atom in France desired by Emmanuel Macron.
In February 2022, the President announced that he wanted to build six new-generation pressurized water nuclear reactors, with an option for eight more. The sites selected for the first three pairs are Penly, Gravelines and Bugey (Ain), with the first pair in Normandy due to come into service by 2035.
Four months and ten themes
Following on from the first debate, this second part will take place over four months, and will be structured around ten main themes. The debate will be held during public meetings, notably in Gravelines, Dunkirk, Calais and in Belgium – at the request of the Belgian authorities – but also online via a participatory platform.
The objective is to “reach as many people as possible,” CNDP president Marc Papinutti stressed during a press presentation.
Schedule, design and cost of the EPR2, environmental impact, employment, living environment, safety… “We tried to imagine all the subjects”, also indicated Luc Marin, president of the Gravelines debate.
According to him, “there are concerns about nuclear risk, radioactivity, waste (…) more broadly about the environment and marine submersion.”
The public is invited to ask questions to the project stakeholders and to make suggestions that could contribute to the CNDP’s final report, with recommendations to the project stakeholders (EDF and the electricity transmission manager RTE), explains the CNDP.
In Gravelines, the EDF project plans to build two EPR reactors of 1,600 MW each on a site already comprising six 900 MW reactors, a major project for the Dunkirk region which is seeking to decarbonise its industry dependent on fossil fuels.
“70% of the electricity needs of Hauts-de-France”
This public debate was launched a few days after the start of the nuclear reaction at the EPR in Flamanville in the Manche, a prelude to its connection to the electricity network.
This project is twelve years behind schedule due to numerous technical setbacks which have caused the bill to explode, now estimated at 13.2 billion euros by EDF, four times the initial estimate of 3.3 billion.
The largest nuclear power plant in France and Western Europe, Gravelines “today provides 70% of the electricity needs of Hauts-de-France”, recalls the CNDP.
EDF plans to commission the first EPR reactor in 2038.
The second debate opens even though the CNDP indicated in an opinion on September 4 that it was still “awaiting complete and reasoned responses from the project owners and the State on the new nuclear program and the EPR2 Penly project.”
In her opinion, she also called on the government to clarify its roadmap setting out the country’s future energy choices – and therefore the share between nuclear and renewables. This bill was initially planned for summer 2023.
