France Link

EDF refutes report of plan to delay scaling back nuclear power output

French tility giant EDF has dismissed a TV report that it has a secret plan to delay reducing the share of nuclear power in France's energy mix to 50% by 2025, as required by a law passed two years ago, to 2050 instead, describing the suggestion as "malicious rumours". 

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

French state-controlled utility EDF on Monday denied a media report that it had a secret plan to push back by 25 years a target to reduce the share of nuclear power generation within France's overall electricity mix, reports Reuters.

French television station BFM TV had earlier reported that according to a secret internal EDF plan, the share of nuclear generation in that mix will only be reduced to 50 percent by 2050, instead of 2025 as stipulated in a French law.

EDF said on its official Twitter account that it formally denied the "malicious rumours about the existence of a secret plan which sets back the 50 percent nuclear target to 2050."

It added it was working within the general framework of France's 2015 energy law, and would work on France's energy transition plans with the new government.

France's 2015 energy transition law outlined the country's ambition to curb its dependence on atomic power by cutting the share of nuclear in its electricity mix to 50 percent from over 75 percent currently, while developing more renewable power.

Read more of this report from Reuters.