Baptiste Morin 1:58 p.m., September 27, 2022, modified at 2:03 p.m., September 27, 2022

Emmanuel Macron's second term is focused on restoring nuclear power.

The government wants to build six new EPRs in existing plants.

On Europe 1, the Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher announced that she wanted to speed up administrative deadlines to help with the deployment of new nuclear reactors.

The winds have turned.

After a first five-year term marked by the closure of the Fessenheim power plant, Emmanuel Macron's second term is resolutely pro-nuclear.

But how does the government intend to speed up on these sensitive files?

act quickly 

The executive wishes to act as quickly as possible.

The government wants the construction of the foundations and ancillary buildings to begin before the end of the public inquiry.

Six new EPRs will be built in existing plants.

"We already know about these sites from an environmental point of view, from a preventive archeology point of view. And so we can say to ourselves that we can go faster on the administrative instruction phases because we are not going to endanger nature on sites which already host nuclear reactors", explained Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for Energy Transition, on Europe 1.

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Bypass administrative obstacles 

The acceleration will also take place on administrative appeals.

The bill provides that the Council of State declares the project "imperative reasons of major public interest", which makes it possible to derogate from the environmental code.

This does not mean, however, that no recourse will be possible before the courts.

In the event of litigation, it is directly the Council of State which would judge in first and last instance.

The executive wants the concrete base of the new EPR to be poured before the end of the president's mandate, therefore before May 2027. Recently, EDF said it was counting on the end of 2027, or even the beginning of 2028.