BKW
135.32
CHF
-1.63%
Zurich (awp) – France wants to build six new nuclear power plants by 2050, and the construction of eight more is to be examined. Now it turns out that Paris also wants to make Switzerland pay, as the “NZZ am Sonntag” writes.
“France considers it opportune that countries that do not want to have new nuclear power plants themselves, but would like to import nuclear power from France, should contribute to the costs of building the planned new nuclear power plants in France.” This sentence was made during a press trip to a meeting between European journalists and the French Foreign Ministry in Paris at the end of March. Switzerland is also explicitly mentioned, as the newspaper writes.
The idea met with little response from the large electricity companies Alpiq, Axpo and BKW, who rejected the request from France: they were concentrating on the expansion of renewables, they said in unison when asked by “NZZ am Sonntag”. “Alpiq has no interest in investing in new nuclear power plants in France,” wrote a spokesman.
Things were different in the past: When resistance to the planned Swiss Kaiseraugst nuclear power plant grew in the 1970s, the Swiss electricity companies contributed significantly to the construction costs for French nuclear power plants. For example, Axpo’s predecessor assumed 17.5 percent of the construction costs for blocks 2 and 3 from Bugey. The reactors in Fessenheim and Cattenom were also built with Swiss money, among other things.
In return, they received a guarantee that they would be able to import nuclear power from France. Since the shutdown of Fessenheim, there are no longer any investments by Swiss electricity companies in French nuclear power plants. However, there were still long-term contracts that secured Switzerland’s purchase of around 2,300 megawatts of nuclear power.
ra/
2024-04-07 13:04:18
#France #money #Switzerland #nuclear #power #plants
