Nuclear power in France

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Nuclear power is the primary source of energy in France. In 2004, nuclear energy made up the largest share of France's energy consumption at 39%.[1][2] Looking purely at electricity, though, 407 TWh out of the country's total production of 541 TWh of electricity was from nuclear power (75%), the highest percentage in the world.[3]

Électricité de France (EDF) — the country's main electricity generation and distribution company – manages the country's 59 nuclear reactors.[4] EDF is substantially owned by the French Government, with around 85% shares in government hands.[5] EdF has said its uncompleted third-generation nuclear reactor European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) project, the Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant, will be delayed until 2016, due to "both structural and economic reasons," which will bring the project's total cost to €8.5 billion.[6]

As of 2012, France's electricity price to household customers is the seventh-cheapest amongst the 27 member European Union, and also the seventh-cheapest to industrial consumers, with a rate of €0.14 per kWh to households and €0.07 per kWh to industrial consumers.[7] France was the biggest energy exporter in the EU in 2012, exporting 45TWh of electricity to its neighbours.[8] During very cold or hot periods demand routinely exceeds supply due to the lack of more flexible generating plants, and France needs to import electricity.[9][10]

France's nuclear power industry has been called "a success story" that has put the nation "ahead of the world" in terms of providing cheap energy with low CO2 emissions.[11] However, following François Hollande's victory in the 2012 Presidential Election, there may be a partial nuclear phaseout in France, with his Socialist party in favour of closing the oldest 24 reactors by 2025.[12]





The first nuclear power plant by EDF in France was opened in 1962.[15]

Other nuclear facilities in France were online by 1956, for instance Marcoule. [16] [17]

Messmer Plan[edit]

As a direct result of the 1973 oil crisis, on 6 March 1974 Prime Minister Pierre Messmer unexpectedly announced what became known as the 'Messmer Plan', a huge nuclear power program aimed at generating all of France's electricity from nuclear power.[15] At the time of the oil crisis most of France's electricity came from foreign oil, and while it was strong in heavy engineering capabilities, France had few indigenous energy resources,[18]

The announcement of the Messmer Plan, which was enacted without public or parliamentary debate,[19][20] also led to the foundation of the Groupement des scientifiques pour l'information sur l'énergie nucléaire (Association of Scientists for Information on Nuclear Energy), formed after around 4,000 scientists signed a petition of concern over the government's action, known as the Appeal of the 400 after the 400 scientists who initially signed it.[19]

The plan envisaged the construction of around 80 nuclear plants by 1985 and a total of 170 plants by 2000.[19] Work on the first three plants, at Tricastin, Gravelines, and Dampierre started the same year[15] and France installed 56 reactors over the next 15 years.[21]

Recent developments[edit]


In February 2012 President Sarkozy decided to extend the life of existing nuclear reactors beyond 40 years, following the Court of Audit decision that this is the best option as new nuclear capacity or other forms of energy would be more costly and available too late. Within ten years 22 out of the 58 reactors will have been operating for over 40 years.[23] The court expects EDF's projected investment programme in existing plant, including post Fukushima safety improvements, will add between 9.5% and 14.5% to generation costs, taking costs to between €37.9 and €54.2 per MWh. However generation costs from the new Flamanville EPR reactor would be, depending on construction outcome, at least in the €70 to €90 per MWh range.[24] Academics at Paris Dauphine University forecast that domestic electricity prices will rise by about 30% by 2020.[25]

Following François Hollande's victory in the 2012 presidential election, is thought that there may be a partial nuclear phaseout in France. This follows a national debate in the run-up to the election, with President Nicolas Sarkozy backing nuclear power and François Hollande proposing a cut in nuclear power's electricity contribution by more than a third by 2025.[26] It seems certain that Hollande will at least order the closure of the Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant, probably by 2017,[27] where there has been an ongoing closure campaign due to concerns about seismic activity and flooding.

Management and economics[edit]

Électricité de France (EDF) — the country's main electricity generation and distribution company – manages the country's 59 nuclear power plants.[4] EDF is substantially owned by the French government, with around 85% of EdF shares in government hands .[5] 78.9% of Areva shares are owned by the French public sector company CEA and are therefore in public ownership[28] EdF remains heavily in debt. Its profitability suffered during the recession which began in 2008. It made €3.9 billion in 2009, which fell to €1.02 billion in 2010, with provisions set aside amounting to €2.9 billion.[citation needed] The Nuclear industry has been accused of significant cost overruns and failing to cover the total costs of operation, including waste management and decommissioning.[29][not in citation given]


EdF said its third-generation nuclear reactor EPR project at its Flamanville, northern France, plant will be delayed until 2016, due to "both structural and economic reasons," which will bring the project's total cost to EUR8.5 billion.[6] Similarly, the cost of the EPR to be built at Olkiluoto, Finland has escalated. Areva and the utility involved "are in bitter dispute over who will bear the cost overruns and there is a real risk now that the utility will default.[31] EdF has suggested that if the political environment causes the EPR costs to overrun, the design would be replaced with a cheaper and simpler Franco-Japanese design, the Atmea for which the design will be completed by 2013, or the already operating Franco-Chinese design, the CPR-1000.[32][33]

Technical overview[edit]











The Cattenom site houses four 1300 MWe class reactors


1450 MWe class (N4 design)[edit]



1650MWe class (EPR design)[edit]

The next generation design for French reactors will be the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), which will have a broader scope than France alone, with a plant in Finland and two in China undergoing construction, and two more proposed for the United Kingdom. The first French EPR is under construction at the Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant. As a result of delays and cost overruns, completion is now scheduled for 2017.[37] An additional EPR reactor was planned for the Penly Nuclear Power Plant, but this project has now been abandoned.




Four plants, equalling 14 reactors are located on the coast:


Fuel cycle[edit]

Active work going on for the ultimate underground repository.


While France does not mine uranium for the front end of the fuel cycle domestically, French companies have various holdings in the uranium market. Uranium for the French program totals 10,500 tonnes per year coming from various locations such as:

  • Canada – 4500 tU/yr
  • Niger – 3200 tU/yr


Operational considerations[edit]

France's nuclear reactors comprise 90 per cent of EDFs capacity and so they are used in load-following mode and some reactors close at weekends because there is no market for the electricity.[4][10] This means that the capacity factor is low by world standards, usually in the high seventies as a percentage. This is not an ideal economic situation for nuclear plants, but is required due to the load-following nature of some reactors.[4]

During periods of high demand EDF has been routinely "forced into the relatively expensive spot and short-term power markets because it lacks adequate peak load generating capacity".[10] France heavily relies on electric heating, with about one third of existing and three-quarters of new houses using electric space heating due to the low off-peak tariffs offered.[39] Due to this residential heating demand, about 2.3 GW of extra power is needed for every degree Celsius of temperature drop.[39] This means that during cold snaps, French electricity demand increases dramatically, forcing the country to import at full capacity from its neighbours during peak demand. In February 2012, Germany "came to the rescue of France during last week's cold snap by massively exporting electricity to its neighbour, silencing critics who slammed Berlin last year for abruptly shutting down 8 nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster". (Germany uses a variety of heating methods including gas and fuel oil heaters).[9]

However nations, such as France, that do not solely rely on fossil fuels and biomass for heating, tend to have superior air quality, and therefore lower pollution related deaths, which are a leading cause of early mortality. For example, outdoor fossil fuel and biomass pollution, from particulate matter alone, kill approximately 1 million people every year according to the World Health Organization.[40] The level of atmospheric particulate matter, small enough to enter and cause damage to the lungs –is 13 micrograms per cubic metre in France,[41] cleaner than the air in Germany, where the particulate air pollution is higher at 16 micrograms per cubic metre.[42]


In 2008, nuclear power accounted for 16% of final energy consumption in France. As is common in all industrialized nations, Fossil fuels still dominate World energy consumption, particularly in the transportation and heating sectors.[4] Nuclear constitutes a higher level of total energy consumption in France than in any other country. In 2001, nuclear power accounted for 37% of the total energy consumption in France.[43] In 2011 France consumed ~ 11 Quadrillion BTUs of energy according to the Energy Information Administration.[44] ~ 11 Quadrillion BTUs is equivalent to 3224 TWh.[45]

Another criticism of the French energy policy is that France may have over-invested in nuclear power plants, requiring electricity export when French electricity demand is low or "dumping" in the French market, encouraging the use of electricity for space heating and water heating. This can be regarded as an economically wasteful practice.[4] However as the adoption of Electric Cars, such as the French Renault Fluence Z.E., over combustion engined vehicles increases, reducing France's Fossil fuel dependence, France's comparatively cheap peak and off peak electricity prices, could act as a strong customer incentive that may spur the speed of the adoption of electric vehicles;[46] essentially turning the current perceived glut of cheap Nuclear power generated electricity into an asset as demand for electric vehicle recharging stations becomes more and more commonplace.[47][48]

Due to France's relatively low emission producing electricity grid, the total life cycle carbon dioxide emissions from an electric car, charged by the French electricity grid are 12 g per kilometre travelled.[49] This compares favourably to the direct emissions of one of the most successful hybrid cars, the Toyota Prius, which produces carbon dioxide emissions at the higher rate of 105 g per kilometre travelled.[49]

Accidents and incidents[edit]

Nuclear power accidents in France[50][51]
Date Location Description Cost
(in millions
2006 US$)
17 October 1969 Saint-Laurent, France 50 kg of Uranium in one of the reactors at the Saint-Laurent Nuclear Power Plant began to melt, an event classified at 'level 4' on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).[52] As of March 2011, this remains the most serious civil nuclear power accident in France.[53]  ?





General seismic risk in France is categorised on a five-point scale, with zone 1 being very low risk, through to zone 5 in areas with a 'very strong' risk.[57] In Metropolitan France the areas of highest risk are rated at 4, 'strong', and are located in the Pyrenees, Alps, the south of the Haut-Rhin département, the Territoire de Belfort and a few communes in Doubs.[57] A new zoning map comes into force on 1 May 2011, which significantly increases the rating for many areas.[57] The major nuclear research facilities at Cadarache are located in a zone 4 area near the fault that caused the 1909 Lambesc earthquake, while the Marcoule research centre and the nuclear power plants at Tricastin, Cruas, Saint-Alban, Bugey and Fessenheim (near the fault that caused the 1356 Basel earthquake) are all within zone 3.[58] A further 6 plants lie within zone 2.[58]

The current process for evaluating the seismic hazard for a nuclear plant is set out in Règle Fondamentale de Sûreté (Fundamental Safety Rule) RFS 2001-01, published by the Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety, which uses more detailed seismotectonic zones.[59] RFS 2001-01 replaced RFS I.2.c, published in 1981, however it has been criticised for continuing to require a deterministic assessment (rather than a probabilistic approach) that relies primarily on the strongest 'historically known' earthquake near a site.[60] This leads to a number of problems including the short period (in geological timescales) for which there are records, the difficulty of assessing the characteristics of earthquakes that occurred prior to the use of seismometers, the difficulty of identifying the existence of all earthquakes that pre-date the historic record, and ultimately the reliance on one single earthquake scenario.[60] Other criticisms include the use of intensity in the evaluation method, rather than spectral acceleration, which is commonly used elsewhere.[60]

Nuclear safety[edit]

Monique Sené is a nuclear physicist and one of the co-founders of the Groupement des scientifiques pour l'information sur l'énergie nucléaire (GSIEN) (Association of Scientists for Information on Nuclear Energy) and its first president.[19] As of March 2011 she was Honorary Research Director at the National Centre for Scientific Research and president of GSIEN.[61] Although she is not an opponent of nuclear power per se, Sené is a high-profile critic of the French nuclear power programme due to concerns about its safety, the handling of nuclear waste and its imposition without public debate.[62]


Public opinion[edit]

Protest against new French nuclear plants (March 2007)

Following the 2011 Fukushima I nuclear accidents an OpinionWay poll at the end of March found that 57% of the French population were opposed to nuclear energy in France.[65] A TNS-Sofres poll in the days following the accident found 55% in favour of nuclear power.[65] In 2006 BBC / GlobeScan poll found 57% of the French opposed to nuclear energy.[66]


Historically the position has generally been favourable, with around two-thirds of the population strongly supporting nuclear power,[21][68] while the Gaullists, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party were also all in favour.




Anti-nuclear movement[edit]

Stéphane Lhomme in front of Blayais' Nuclear power station


In January 2004, up to 15,000 anti-nuclear protesters marched in Paris against a new generation of nuclear reactors, the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR).[70] On 17 March 2007, simultaneous protests, organised by Sortir du nucléaire, were staged in 5 French towns to protest construction of EPR plants.[71][72]



On the first anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, organisers of French anti-nuclear demonstrations claim 60,000 supporters formed a human chain 230 kilometres long, stretching from Lyon to Avignon.[76] Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann expects anti-nuclear petition drives to start in at least six European Union countries in 2012 with the goal of having the EU abandon nuclear power.[77]

In March 2014, police arrested 57 Greenpeace protesters used a truck to break through security barriers and enter the Fessenheim nuclear in eastern France. The activists hung antinuclear banners, but France’s nuclear safety authority said that the plant’s security had not been compromised. President Hollande has promised to close Fessenheim by 2016, but Greenpeace wants immediate closure.[78]

Environmental impact[edit]



Fusion research[edit]

Protest against ITER in France, 2009

The nuclear fusion project International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor is constructing the world's largest and most advanced experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor in the south of France. A collaboration between the European Union (EU), India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States, the project aims to make a transition from experimental studies of plasma physics to electricity-producing fusion power plants. In 2005, Greenpeace International issued a press statement criticizing government funding of the ITER, believing the money should have been diverted to renewable energy sources and claiming that fusion energy would result in nuclear waste and nuclear weapons proliferation issues.[81] A French association including about 700 anti-nuclear groups, Sortir du nucléaire (Get Out of Nuclear Energy), claimed that ITER was a hazard because scientists did not yet know how to manipulate the high-energy deuterium and tritium hydrogen isotopes used in the fusion process.[82] According to most anti-nuclear groups, nuclear fusion power “remains a distant dream”.[83] The World Nuclear Association says that fusion "presents so far insurmountable scientific and engineering challenges".[84] Construction of the ITER facility began in 2007, but the project has run into many delays and budget overruns. The facility is now not expected to begin operations until the year 2027 – 11 years after initially anticipated.[85]

See also[edit]



  2. ^
  3. ^ "Nuclear shares of electricity generation". Retrieved 1 October 2013. 
  6. ^ a b [g] Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  11. ^[full citation needed]
  13. ^ Notice on France on Global Security (English)
  14. ^ Sahara on the website of the French Minister of Defence (French)
  16. ^
  17. ^
  25. ^ Rob Broomby (11 January 2014). "France struggles to cut down on nuclear power". BBC. Retrieved 14 January 2014. 
  28. ^ [d]. Retrieved 27 December 2011
  29. ^ Retrieved 27 December 2011 On 20 July 2011[full citation needed]
  31. ^ [h] Retrieved 27 December 2011"
  36. ^ "Facts about Olkiluoto 3 financing". Retrieved 10 July 2009. 
  47. ^
  49. ^ a b Renault to sell electric cars for the same price as diesels
  63. ^ "Get tough on nuclear safety". Nature. 12 January 2012 (481,113).  Check date values in: |date= (help)
  66. ^ "BBC World Service Poll". Retrieved 28 April 2010. 
  78. ^ "France: Greenpeace Activists Arrested in Break-In". New York Times. March 18, 2014. 
  82. ^ France Wins Nuclear Fusion Plant|Germany|Deutsche Welle|28 June 2005
  84. ^ World Nuclear Association (2005). "Nuclear Fusion Power". 

External links[edit]