EIB and nuclear: €400M for the expansion of Orano’s Tricastin plant

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted Orano a €400M loan to expand its uranium enrichment plant at Tricastin. This decision marks the European public bank’s return to financing nuclear-related activities in France, for a project strongly driven by energy security concerns.

Orano has committed an investment of €1.7 billion to increase the capacity of its Georges Besse 2 uranium enrichment plant, located at the Tricastin site (Drôme), by 30%. The EIB is supporting this effort with a €400M loan over 25 years, effectively ending more than fifteen years of de facto suspension of its financing for the nuclear sector in France and Europe. This shift comes in response to the war in Ukraine and the influence of the EIB’s new president, Nadia Calviño.

The expansion work at the Georges Besse 2 plant began last autumn. It aims to add four additional modules to increase its enrichment capacity by 2.5 million SWU. The first production is expected in 2028, with full commissioning planned for 2030. Orano launched this investment at the end of 2023 to meet the demand of customers seeking to secure additional enrichment capacity on European soil.

Energy security is also the primary reason cited by the EIB for its loan to Orano, under the European Commission’s REPowerEU program. This large-scale plan, launched in mid-2022 following the invasion of Ukraine, aims to ensure Europe’s strategic energy autonomy while prioritizing low-carbon sources in the context of the climate transition. The EIB claims to have mobilized more than €100 billion in investments thanks to €31 billion in financing provided last year.

The EIB Reconnects with the Nuclear Sector

This loan to Orano primarily signifies a major comeback for the European public bank in the nuclear sector. Declaring that it now follows a “technology-neutral approach, in line with the European Union’s decarbonization objective (…),” the EIB has been the scene of recurring disputes over nuclear energy since its last financings granted to Areva in 2008 (also at Tricastin) and Urenco in 2009.

Nadia Calviño, who has been in office since early 2024, had already indicated her intention to reconsider the principled opposition of her predecessor, the German Werner Hoyer. She was responding in particular to France’s lobbying efforts, voiced by Emmanuel Macron in 2023. This thaw could thus pave the way for an official clarification of the EIB’s stance on nuclear energy. ■