Stakeholders discuss nuclear as a strategic European industry

Lyon, 21 June 2023: Stakeholders are gathered today in Lyon, France, to discuss key topics of relevance to the European nuclear industry. As part of nucleareurope’s annual conference, hosted by GIFEN,  the debate is centred around nuclear as a European industry, competitiveness, energy sovereignty, supply chains and workforce.

“The discussions which are taking place here in Lyon are very relevant given the EU’s focus on energy sovereignty, supporting its industries and meeting the decarbonisation goals”, states Yves Desbazeille. “The nuclear industry has a lot to bring to the table. But we need to make sure that both sides – industry and policymakers – are able to deliver what is needed to ensure that nuclear can contribute in a meaningful way to the benefit of European citizens and businesses”.

 For Xavier Ursat, Chairman of GIFEN, “The French nuclear industry is fully committed to meet its ambitions and more particularly its large-scale programmes. One of the keys to success is developing partnerships between French supply chain and its peers from other European countries to build a stronger nuclear industry. You can count on us to be more mobilised than ever.”

This high-level event kicked-off with a dinner on 20 June during which we were honoured by the presence of Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Energy Transition, France). The three main topics on the agenda for today are: Enabling a strong European nuclear programme, guaranteeing energy sovereignty and ensuring a competitive low-carbon Europe.

The discussions are currently covering a wide range of topics. First of all, the levers which are needed to support the revival of the nuclear in Europe, in line with the goal of having 150GW of installed nuclear capacity in the EU by 2050.  Financing, skills and a strong supply chain are areas which need to be worked on, both from an industry and policy perspective. Secondly, solutions which can be implemented to ensure that Europe produces enough energy to meet its own needs, and thus reduce its dependence on third countries. And finally, the role of nuclear in terms of supporting downstream users such as energy intensive industries, as well as nuclear as a European industry in its own right.

About us:

nucleareurope is the Brussels-based trade association for the nuclear energy industry in Europe. The membership of nucleareurope is made up of 15 national nuclear associations and through these associations, nucleareurope represents nearly 3,000 European companies working in the industry and supporting around 1,100,000 jobs.

The French Nuclear Industry Association (Groupement des Industriels Français de l’Energie Nucléaire – GIFEN) is the trade union of the nuclear industry in France. It includes the 5 operators of nuclear facilities, major companies, intermediate-size businesses, SMEs, micro-firms and associations that together cover all types of industrial activity and all areas of civil nuclear energy.

For more information, please contact Jessica Johnson: jessica.johnson@nucleareurope.eu