Nuclear power in Europe

PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) - France must decide in the next few years whether it wants to continue its nuclear-driven energy policy at a cost of up to 300 billion euros ($415 billion) or if it wants to embark on an equally costly route towards using other fuels.

Most of the country's 58 nuclear reactors were built during a short period in the 1980s, and about half will reach their designed age limits of 40 in the 2020s, pushing France towards what industry calls "the nuclear cliff."

The European Commission is divided over state-aid rules for energy and the environment ahead of a debate to be held in Strasbourg next week (Tuesday 8 October). The Commission is preparing guidance for member states in a bid to solve inconsistencies that have plagued two areas: feed-in tariffs for renewable energy, and state subsidies for nuclear power plants. A draft version of the guidance will be issued by the end of the year, with a view to adoption in 2014.

The nuclear industry wants European Union rules changed so that member states can provide direct state aid for building nuclear power plants. But member states and Commission departments are split on the issue. Several member states – including France, the Czech Republic and the UK – want the Commission to relax state-aid rules so they can use environmental subsidies to fund nuclear plants, seeing such a policy as part of a ‘low-carbon' approach. But other countries, including Germany and Austria, are adamantly opposed to nuclear being on the same footing as renewables when it comes to environmental subsidies.

More than 20 Greenpeace activists climbed fences to break into an EDF nuclear power plant in southern France and demanded its closure, the environmental campaign group has said.

The activists, dressed in red, broke into the Tricastin plant at dusk on Sunday and unfurled a yellow and black banner on the wall with the words: "Tricastin, nuclear accident – president of the catastrophe?" above a picture of the president, François Hollande.

President Francois Hollande’s decision to shut Electricite de France SA’s oldest reactor at Fessenheim in 2016 may force the power-exporting eastern region to rely on imports and require extra spending on the local grid.

“The power supply situation of Alsace will become more fragile,” Dominique Maillard, president of grid operator Reseau de Transport d’Electricite, said at a press conference today.