Renewable energies still lack competitiveness compared with nuclear power,
French state-controlled power giant Electricite de France's (EDF.FR) Chairman
and Chief Executive Henri Proglio said Monday, during a conference over the
access to civil nuclear energy.
EDF currently handles 58 nuclear plants
in France, where nearly 78% of electricity is nuclear-generated.
To
Proglio, safety will always have a price and there's no such thing as low cost,
when that means low safety nuclear power. But nuclear power has proven so far it
can be safe and competitive, he stressed.
Proglio insisted that the
global nuclear industry is currently lacking trained and competent people, an
issue that also worries Italian power group Enel SpA's (ENEL.MI) chief executive
Fulvio Conti, also speaking during the same conference in Paris.
Conti
also stressed that governments which plan to embrace the nuclear renewal must
commit to the long term, and that the legal framework in those countries must be
stable.