France selects innovative nuclear projects

Six innovative nuclear reactor projects will be supported as part of the France 2030 investment plan, energy minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher announced ahead of the World Nuclear Exhibition (WNE) held in Paris this week.

Selected projects include a fusion reactor, fast-neutron reactors, modular reactors and high-temperature reactors. They will benefit from total funding of €77.2mn, in addition to technical support from the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) for four of the six projects.

French firm Renaissance Fusion proposed a deuterium-tritium fusion reactor of 1GW that it hopes to commission in the 2030s. The France 2030 funding will be allocated to the first phase of the project, which consists of the development of liquid metals and superconductors, and represents 40pc of total funding received by the firm, the rest coming from the private sector, Renaissance Fusion's chief project officer Simon Belka told Argus at the WNE conference.

In addition, start-ups Otrera Nuclear Energy and Hexana put forward projects involving fast-neutron reactors (FNRs). The latter are fourth-generation reactors that allow for a more efficient use of nuclear fuel. "If we start having tensions on uranium supply in 2050, we have to start building FNRs now," Hexana chief technical officer Paul Gauthé told Argus at the WNE conference. The company aims to commission its two 400MW units by 2035. The reactors will include a heat storage system, for which tests will begin next year.

The government support for Hexana's technology shows a return of interest in FNRs, Gauthé said, as France abandoned its Superphenix and Astrid FNR prototypes in 1997 and 2019.

In addition, Calogena submitted a project for modular reactors of 30MW for the production of heat, Blue Capsule proposed a high-temperature reactor, while Jimmy Energy also proposed a 15MW reactor for the production of heat.

The selected projects add to two other innovative reactors that were chosen earlier this year and benefited from combined funding of €24.9mn.

France, along with a group of pro-nuclear countries, this summer called on the European Commission to consider the development of an industrial alliance for small modular reactors.

By Tatiana Serova