Serbia signs nuclear deal with EDF, plant only after 2040
Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic signed a partnership with French utility EDF and the French Development Agency: a 500,000 euro grant, three new studies by mid-2027, no reactor before 2040.
A grant of 500,000 euros is the first item in Serbia’s nuclear programme that carries a price, a signature and a deadline. The money comes from the French Development Agency (AFD), and the partnership agreement was signed on July 29 at the Serbian government building in Belgrade. Serbia was represented by Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic; the partners are French utility EDF and AFD.
The funds run through the FEXTE facility. The Ministry of Mining and Energy says the signature formally opens the first phase of the nuclear programme. For AFD it is a first involvement in any country’s nuclear programme, while EDF operates more than 50 reactors in France.
What the French money actually buys
EDF completed a Preliminary Technical Study last year, the document that led to this agreement. What follows splits into three tracks:
- three studies in the first phase of the programme, carried out with EDF
- the remaining 14 studies, still open for talks with a range of international companies
- institutional capacity building and staff development, aligned with the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
That leaves seventeen studies still to be produced. Only once they are finished does the government have the material it needs to choose a technology at all.
“Our goal is for all the studies to be completed by the middle of next year,” Djedovic Handanovic said after the signing.
Mid-2027 therefore becomes the first measurable checkpoint. Until then nothing is chosen: not the reactor, not the site, not the construction partner.
When could Serbia get its first nuclear plant?
Not before 2040, by the minister’s own estimate. Speaking after the signing, she said:
In the years ahead Serbia must be ready in institutional, regulatory and professional terms to choose a technology, and Serbia could get its first nuclear plant after 2040
That arithmetic has a back story. The moratorium on building nuclear plants, imposed in 1989 and in force for 35 years, was lifted through amendments to the Energy Law in November 2024. Roughly 20 months passed between the repeal and the first contracted money, and at least 14 more years separate Wednesday’s signature from any actual plant.
One scenario in the National Energy and Climate Plan foresees nuclear capacity of up to 1,000 MW, and only after 2040. On that timeline the 500,000 euros is not an investment in a plant but the cost of preparing a decision.
Engineers are the bottleneck
The minister named people rather than technology as the weakest link.
“Staff are the most valuable element in the development of a nuclear programme,” Djedovic Handanovic said, adding that “one of our most important tasks will be building a base of engineers.”
Serbia has no nuclear plant and therefore no operating staff to run one. The AFD grant and the first phase of work with EDF cover training and institutional groundwork, not hardware.
The next announcement that moves the programme is not a signature but a delivery of studies. Until mid-2027 Serbia’s nuclear programme rests on one finished study, seventeen pending ones and 500,000 euros of French money.
