From 2011. Does not appear to have moved beyond the conceptual phase.
"...DCNS, a naval company that services the French government, have announced plans to develop a nuclear reactor that will operate offshore and sit somewhere along the ocean floor. Protected inside a cylinder roughly the length of a football field, the proposed "Flexblue" reactor would be capable of producing up to 250 megawatts of energy -- enough to power a million homes.
The news is hardly surprising for a country that gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors, according to the TV news program 60 Minutes.
Company executives say that the reactor's design coupled with the concept of storing it 300 feet below the sea should ease some of the safety qualms people have with nuclear power plants. Scheduled for installation in 2016, the reactor will be able to withstand natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods, according to CEO Patrick Boissier's interview with the online publication Platt.
He also mentions that it will be far less vulnerable to terrorist attacks than a land-based nuclear reactor, with the added benefit of the ocean as a built-in coolant."
https://www.zdnet.com/article/frances-latest-green-idea-underwater-nuclear-reactors/
"...DCNS, a naval company that services the French government, have announced plans to develop a nuclear reactor that will operate offshore and sit somewhere along the ocean floor. Protected inside a cylinder roughly the length of a football field, the proposed "Flexblue" reactor would be capable of producing up to 250 megawatts of energy -- enough to power a million homes.
The news is hardly surprising for a country that gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear reactors, according to the TV news program 60 Minutes.
Company executives say that the reactor's design coupled with the concept of storing it 300 feet below the sea should ease some of the safety qualms people have with nuclear power plants. Scheduled for installation in 2016, the reactor will be able to withstand natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods, according to CEO Patrick Boissier's interview with the online publication Platt.
He also mentions that it will be far less vulnerable to terrorist attacks than a land-based nuclear reactor, with the added benefit of the ocean as a built-in coolant."
https://www.zdnet.com/article/frances-latest-green-idea-underwater-nuclear-reactors/