Would-be builders of new nuclear in the UK have welcomed the publication of long-awaited legislation to reform the UK energy market and encourage the development of a low-carbon energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, France has launched a national debate in preparation for its own energy transition legislation.

France has published the basic elements of a national doctrine to help the government develop a strategy to address potential health, social and economic impacts in the unlikely event of a serious nuclear accident.

The French state has authorised full construction of the world's largest tokamak nuclear fusion reactor with a formal decree to allow creation of a 'basic nuclear installation'.

 

Pierre-Franck Chevet has been appointed as chairman of France's nuclear safety regulator, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN). He succeeds Andre-Claude Lacoste, who has now completed his six-year term.

France should not need any imports to meet its electricity demand over the coming winter although the situation could be tighter elsewhere in Europe, the operator of the French grid has warned. Meanwhile, German industry has warned against taking the country's success as an electricity exporter at face value.

EDF chief Henri Proglio has positioned electricity as "the energy of the future" while the country prepares to debate an 'energy transition'.

Newly signed contracts have seen one of Areva's largest ever uranium orders, which will help to secure over 20 years' fuel supply for EDF's reactors.

A national debate will be launched later this year to discuss France's 'energy transition'. The results of the debate will be used in formulating a new energy policy bill in mid-2013. Meanwhile, the directors of the country's nuclear power plant fleet have voiced their support for their colleagues at Fessenheim, ordered to shut down in 2016.

France's oldest operating nuclear power plant will be forced to close in 2016, as president Francois Hollande sets the country on a path to reduce nuclear's share of generation from 75% to 50% by 2025.

EDF has awarded a contract to Alstom to retrofit the control systems of all of its 1300 MWe units in France. The contract is part of EDF's program to extend the operating lives of those units.

Unistar Nuclear Energy is ineligible to obtain a licence to construct a new nuclear power plant at Calvert Cliffs as it remains wholly-owned by a foreign corporation, a licensing board of the US nuclear regulator has ruled. Owner EDF of France has been given 60 days to show progress in its search for a US partner for the project.