PARIS – Shutting down France's oldest nuclear plant, in Fessenheim near the border with Germany, as pledged by the Socialist candidate in the presidential election Francois Hollande, "will take some time," one of Hollande's advisers said in an interview with French business daily Les Echos released Monday.
The promise to shut down Fessenheim is central to Hollande's energy plans and is part of a pact the Socialist made with the environmental party. According to the pact, Hollande also pledged to lower the share of nuclear in France's energy mix to 50% from around 75% currently by 2025-30, a decision that would actually represent shutting down 24 reactors over the period.
Shutting down Fessenheim would happen during Hollande's five-year mandate, his adviser Francois Brottes is quoted as saying, yet not at the start, as "it takes some time."
As for the other reactors that would need to be shut down according to the pact, Brottes didn't elaborate, insisting that Fessenheim must be closed down first.
France is the world's second largest nuclear operator after the U.S., with 58 reactors currently running and a 59th--a third-generation safety-enhanced Evolutionary Pressurized Reactor --being built. Yet the heavy reliance of the country on nuclear was called into question after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe a year ago and has become a major theme in the electoral campaign ahead of the presidential vote in April and May.
Unlike the environmentalists, the Socialists plan to let the EPR start production.
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