By America Hernandez
PARIS, March 10 (Reuters) – France and the United Kingdom on Friday signed two partnership agreements emphasizing nuclear power as a safe, low-carbon energy source.
The agreements were announced at a bilateral summit in Paris on energy, defense and migration.
“France and Britain are working together so that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin can never again militarize our energy security,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told a news conference in Paris.
“We are creating a future where every watt of energy that powers our homes and our industry comes from safe, sustainable and reliable sources.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped Britons could share their knowledge of offshore wind, a technology France is struggling to develop.
Under the first of the two agreements, France will study the construction of electrical interconnections with its neighbor to increase cross-border energy flows.
The two countries will also cooperate on clean energy technologies, such as hydrogen and carbon capture.
A second specific nuclear power agreement establishes a nuclear safety and innovation task force and the two countries will build nuclear power plants, both full-size reactors and small modular reactors. Reducing Russia’s dependence on civilian nuclear power was also mentioned as a priority.
“We have a common ambition: to get out of fossil fuels,” Macron said.
French company EDF is already building a nuclear power plant in the UK, Sizewell C, and has a second project in the works, Hinkley Point C. (Reporting by América Hernández; Editing in Spanish by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)