Energy, Bruno Retailleau
Existing nuclear fleet: Extend power plants to 80 years, horizon set from the outset
Direction of change: increase, compared with current law.
The lever. Future of reactors in service: extension of their lifetime, closures, or gradual phase-out of nuclear power. Direction rule: ↑ longer lifetime, reopenings; ↓: closures, phase-out.
« Les centrales nucléaires françaises peuvent fonctionner bien au-delà de 40 ans : c'est une limite comptable, pas technique. En fixant un horizon de 80 ans au lieu de renouveler les autorisations tous les dix ans, nous étalerons le coût des modernisations sur une période plus longue, ce qui rendra l'électricité nucléaire moins chère. »1Translation by the editorsFrench nuclear power plants can operate well beyond 40 years: that is an accounting limit, not a technical one. By setting an 80-year horizon instead of renewing authorisations every ten years, we will spread the cost of upgrades over a longer period, which will make nuclear electricity cheaper.
Encoding
No cost-schedule parameter for this position: see the costing for the reason.
Costing
Announced by the candidate
not announced
The programme does not cost this measure.
Published costings
none
No external costing of this position recorded to date.
Our calculation
lever that cannot be costed
Lever with no coefficient in the cost schedule: the position is compared, not costed.
Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule
Current law. Multiannual energy programme (PPE3, decree of February 2026): continued operation of existing reactors up to sixty years, or even beyond, under the supervision of the Autorité de sûreté nucléaire et de radioprotection (nuclear safety and radiation protection authority); no reactor closure scheduled.
Horizon. Not applicable for now.
Limits. Not costed at this stage. A nuclear phase-out or an extension beyond sixty years mainly involves investment costs (grand carénage refurbishment programme, decommissioning, replacement capacity) and effects on the electricity price, borne largely by EDF and not by the State budget; no comparable public costing is cited.
- Maire-info, « La programmation pluriannuelle de l'énergie enfin publiée », 13 février 2026, 2026-02-13: « « Côté nucléaire, la PPE confirme la poursuite de l'exploitation des réacteurs existants jusqu'à soixante années, voire au-delà » »
How to read these amounts. These are static costs and revenues, with no feedback effect, over a full year: nothing on growth, employment or the revenue that economic activity would gain or lose. A higher net cost does not on its own make a worse policy, nor net savings a better one: each programme rests on an economic model (demand-led stimulus, lower compulsory levies, consolidation of the public accounts…) that the cost schedule does not settle. GDP itself measures a volume of activity, not well-being or the usefulness of what is produced. Economic models and feedback effects.
- avecretailleau.fr, projet, thème « Électricité » (mesure 83). Read the programme page.
Contest this encoding (prefilled email; procedure and deadlines)