Does France's emphasis on nuclear power guarantee its energy independence?
As the Ukraine crisis continues to push fuel prices up, France’s championing of nuclear power as a way of ensuring its energy sovereignty sounds great. But a group of researchers says it's a red herring given France imports all its uranium.
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President Emmanuel Macron announced late last year that France would begin building new nuclear plants.
"To guarantee France's energy independence and achieve our objectives, in particular carbon neutrality in 2050, we will for the first time in decades relaunch the construction of nuclear reactors in our country," Macron said.
He later confirmed France would build up to 14 new nuclear reactors “as part of the renaissance of the French nuclear industry”.
Energy sovereignty
France is a bastion of nuclear power, deriving more than 70 percent of its electricity through its 56 reactors spread out in 18 nuclear plants.
Less reliant on imports of oil and gas than its EU partners, France is better placed to weather Russian threats of rocketing energy prices following EU and US sanctions over Ukraine.
Support for nuclear in France has grown over the last couple of years and a BVA survey carried out in October 2021 showed 53 percent of respondents considered nuclear power was essential for France’s energy independence.
According to the ministry of ecological transition, France’s energy independence was 53.4 percent in 2021 – one of the highest rates in the EU.
Imported uranium
But just how much independence does nuclear ensure?
Production of nuclear power relies on uranium – a metal ore found in rocks, and in seawater, in many parts of the world.
When France first developed nuclear following the 1973 oil crisis, it produced some of its own uranium – reaching a peak of 2,634 tonnes in 1980.
But by the end of the 1990s, France stopped building new plants and its last uranium mine was closed in 2001.
Since then, all of the 8,000 to 10,000 tonnes France needs each year to run its nuclear plants is imported from abroad.
Of the 138,230 tonnes of uranium imported between 2005 and 2020 official Euratom data shows three quarters came from just four countries: Kazakhstan (27,748 tonnes), Australia (25,804 tonnes), Niger (24,787) and Uzbekistan (22,197).
Independence a “red herring”
France has control over its uranium supplies because they're not concentrated in one region of the world according to French nuclear group Orano (formerly Areva). Morevoer, 44 percent of the uranium comes from OECD countries its director general Phillipe Knoche said.
But a group of French researchers and specialists say France's reliance on imported uranium "poses a serious challenge to the idea that nuclear power allows France to ensure its energy independence".
In an open letter published in Le Monde daily on Tuesday they write: “We are as dependent on foreign countries for uranium as we are for gas and oil."
“France’s energy independence is a red herring, it’s utopian,” socio-anthropologist Eric Hahonou, one of the signatories, told RFI.
“You can talk about inter-dependence, about diversifying energy sources, but we're a long way off energy independence,” he said.
The signatories claim the sham is based on the questionable premise that France controls the price of uranium produced by Orano, in Niger and elsewhere.
Fluctuating prices
Because uranium can be used for military purposes, the market is more tightly controlled than oil or gas, but otherwise there are similarities.
Prices can fluctuate – sometimes soaring like oil in the mid-70s and in 2007, sometimes crashing as in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Countries such as Kazakhstan, Namibia, Niger and Uzbekistan “have taken these fluctuations into account by replacing fixed-price contracts imposed by multinationals with agreements providing for their annual revision,” the researchers claim.
They also warn such countries could follow the example of the OPEC group of oil-producing nations and “work together to impose a sudden increase in prices, especially if demand is sustained, which is highly likely if other countries follow the French [nuclear] initiative”.
Changing times
Uranium-producing countries are also diversifying their clientele.
For close to 40 years, France had a monopoly on uranium extraction in its former colony Niger, but now faces competition from China and Canada.
China is mining the small Azlik deposit while the Canadian company GoviEx will soon start production at the Madaouela site.
“Niger has increased its negotiating capacities thanks to its varied partnerships, and its executives are no longer subservient to France as in the past,” the researchers write.
Clever calculations
Giving that France imports all its uranium, its 53 percent energy independence rate seems high.
The explanation lies in a statistical convention dating back to the time France produced its own uranium, nuclear physicist Bernard Laponche told Le Monde.
Under the convention, what counts as primary energy is the heat emitted by the nuclear reactor during the fission process, and not the fuel itself.
Uranium used in France is therefore seen as French, but the ministry admits that without this convention, the rate would drop.
“The rate of energy independence would go down by about 40 percent, to around 12 percent, if we considered the nuclear fuel as primary energy, rather than the heat produced through its reaction”, states the ministry's 2019 energy report.
Energy sobriety
And then there is the impact uranium mining can have on human health, especially in poor countries like Niger.
“In open-pit mines [in towns like Arlit] winds can spread radioactive elements all around," Eric Hanohou says. "People suffer from malformations, water is polluted, cattle are also affected.”
Macron’s nuclear power renaissance, the signatories conclude, “does not guarantee our energy independence; it merely diversifies imports [while creating] other dependencies and risks, particularly for local populations and future generations”.
They pose the question: “Wouldn’t true independence be found through clearly opting for energy sobriety and renewable energies?”
Uranium is not a renewable energy but Orano’s director general Philippe Knoche says there are enough known sources of uranium to "keep power plants turning through to the middle of the next century” and estimated resources for another 250 years.
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