Question 11509 — industry

Summary

Mr. Vincent Trébuchet draws the attention of the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial, Energy and Digital Sovereignty to the future of the French sector of fast neutron reactors (FNR), of which France has long been at the forefront before the abandonment of the ASTRID program in 2019. The ASTRID project, led by the CEA, was to constitute the French demonstrator of a 4th grade sodium fast neutron reactor generation. It aimed to enable the closure of the fuel cycle, thanks to the reuse of spent fuel and the valorization of plutonium and minor actinides from the current nuclear fleet. As such, the project opened the way to an almost “renewable” nuclear sector in the technological sense of the term, based on the circular exploitation of fuel. The abandonment of ASTRID in 2019 ended a strategic investment in the long term, weakened the French industrial position and disrupted the continuity of research on a technology whose implications today are as much geopolitical as energy. At the same time, the main nuclear powers have accelerated: China is deploying its new generation fast reactors and structuring a complete closed cycle doctrine; the United States of America also invests massively in RNR innovative technologies, as well as in the creation of a sovereign sector of advanced fuels, in particular HALEU, in an assumed logic of technological leadership. As underlined in the alert report of June 16, 2025 from the School of Economic Warfare devoted to RNR-Na, France has thus gone "from pioneering actor to spectator", while the mastery of these technologies conditions an essential part of energy sovereignty and industry of tomorrow. The Nuclear Policy Council (CPN) of March 2025 asked the major players (CEA, EDF, Orano, Framatome) to develop, before the end of 2025, a common strategy concerning fast neutrons and the closure of the cycle. This roadmap must specify technological choices, industrial organization and investment needs. Given the deadline, he asks her to kindly specify the timetable for publication of the preparatory work requested by the CPN. It also asks it to specify which fast neutron reactor technology the Government intends to favor for the relaunch of the sector as well as the power or range of powers targeted (large demonstrator, small or medium power reactors, modular architectures). He asks him for concrete details on the strategy envisaged, as well as on the industrial, scientific and budgetary resources which will be devoted to it, in order to give all the necessary visibility to manufacturers.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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