PARIS, Jan 13 (Reuters) - France should build a new generation of nuclear reactors to replace the country's ageing plants, Energy Minister Segolene Royal said on Tuesday, the first time a government member has clearly approved this option.
France, the country most reliant on nuclear power, must decide in the next few years whether to continue down the nuclear route as about half of its 58 reactors will reach their designed 40-year age limit in the 2020s.
President Francois Hollande ousted the pro-nuclear boss of France's main power utility EDF on Wednesday, replacing him with the head of defence electronics firm Thales a day after a new pro-renewables policy became law.
Outgoing Chairman and Chief Executive Henri Proglio had been seeking to renew a mandate that expires next month.
But his pro-nuclear views and status as a 2009 appointee of conservative former president Nicolas Sarkozy sat uncomfortably with the policy of Hollande's Socialist administration, which pushed through a new law on Wednesday that caps nuclear production at the current level.
PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) - France must decide in the next few years whether it wants to continue its nuclear-driven energy policy at a cost of up to 300 billion euros ($415 billion) or if it wants to embark on an equally costly route towards using other fuels.
Most of the country's 58 nuclear reactors were built during a short period in the 1980s, and about half will reach their designed age limits of 40 in the 2020s, pushing France towards what industry calls "the nuclear cliff."
