French parliament approves nuclear plan after pension reform vote

76
2
French parliament approves nuclear plan after pension reform vote

PARIS: France's parliament voted in favor of the government's nuclear investment plan with a majority of support on Tuesday, a day after the government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote on its pension reform plan.

The plan for the construction of six new nuclear reactors was approved by 402 votes in favor and 130 against, and approved by 402 votes in favor and 130 against. On Monday, 278 lawmakers backed an opposition-led no-confidence motion, coming just nine votes short of the 287 needed to bring down the government.

After the Senate last month, the lower house voted to pass the nuclear plan a result of a work of co-construction to tackle climate change and ensure energy sovereignty, according to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

President Emmanuel Macron is looking to regain the initiative with new reforms in the coming weeks after his government fell over the pension reform plan, and nuclear energy is one of the issues on which his centrist party sees eye to eye with the conservative Les Republicains as well as the far-right Rassemblement National.

The aim is to make France a major carbon-free and sovereign nation, Energy Minister Agn s Pannier-Runacher said in the race to build new nuclear weapons, administrative procedures should not slow down the life extension of existing reactors or the construction of new ones.

Pannier-Runacher said that the country's largest scientific, industrial and human adventure is about to be launched with this project.

Macron wants to start building a first next-generation EPR 2 nuclear reactor before the end of his second five-year term in May 2027, as part of a 52 billion US $56 billion plan to build six new reactors.

France has suffered months of major outages at its existing fleet of 56 reactors, sending nuclear power production to a 30 year low, while its first-generation EPR is under construction in Flamanville, western France, is years behind schedule and billions over budget.