The Paris Climate Agreement provides an opportunity for nuclear
energy as countries try to reduce CO2 emissions, France’s Areva NP CEO
Bernard Fontana told New Europe.
“The Paris Agreement is important for climate for sure,” he said on
the sidelines of the Atomexpo forum in Moscow on June 20. Fontana would
not comment on the decision of US President
Donald Trump
to withdraw from the Paris accord. “I have no comment on US situation.
In any case, I believe that nuclear has a role to play to provide as a
source of energy without carbon and our teams are dedicated to make it
work as a decarbonised source, safe, sustainable and economically
efficient,” he said. “So far there is not really a solution to replace
nuclear so it is a question of a mix between nuclear and other sources
of energy and I believe nuclear has a role also in Europe,” he added.
Fontana said that today in France nuclear is the most important
source of energy. France derives about 75% of its electricity from
nuclear energy. This share may be reduced to 50% in the future. “There
is still a lot of work to do to ensure this 50 percent in good quality,
in absolute safety and in competitive way,” he said.
Asked about new kinds of terrorist threats, including hacking, Fontana said,
“It’s the nuclear safety spirit to take into account any kind of threat and to address them and that’s what we do”.
Meanwhile, New Nuclear Watch Europe Chairman
Tim Yeo
told New Europe that the Paris Agreement is a big opportunity for
nuclear. “We’ve got clear commitments now from more countries than ever
before to reduce their carbon emissions,” he said on the sidelines of
Atomexpo. “It’s clear we can only reach that 2 degree centigrade target
with significant new investment in nuclear so that option is absolutely
here and now for the taking. I hope that countries will see that the
cost of nuclear power is also falling,” he argued, referring to nuclear
projects in EU countries Hungary and Finland.
“I also think that President Trump has come and opened the door a bit
wider, too, because even though he’s saying: ‘I’m not going to stay in
the Paris accord’, other countries are saying: ‘We’re determined to stay
in that, we’re determined to play our part,’” Yeo quipped. “I’m very
pleased that the European Union has said straight away: ‘We’re going to
stick to our targets,’” he added.
“I have received two very senior delegations from China in London in
the last four weeks, both of them think China can step in this gap as
well. And I believe that here Rosatom can become a major supplier of
nuclear at a time that there is a real expansion of nuclear,” he said.
Asked about the role of nuclear following the Paris Agreement,
Kirill Komarov,
Rosatom’s First Deputy Director General for Corporate Development and
International Business, told New Europe on June 28 in a written
response, “Regardless of the attitude that individual countries have
toward the Paris Agreement, our planet today has no other way forward
but to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Nuclear energy is carbon-free
energy, both stable and immune to changeable weather conditions”.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/areva-np-ceo-says-paris-accord-opens-door-nuclear-energy/