Slashing nuclear

At a time when France's economy is doing badly, you'd think they would want to retain a certain export, namely nuclear electricity and technology.  But France's president and parliament have voted to reduce the share of nuclear-powered electricity from its current level of 75% down to  50% by 2025.

Environmentalist opposition has been strong for five decades - now the additional factors of aging plants and pressure to invest in renewable energy, a la Germany, have converged to make headway against France's nuclear industry.

On the other hand, it 's not clear how Germany's example of shutting down nuclear while investing heavily in renewables could motivate anyone.  "France's economy may be doing badly but Germany's energy sector is a disaster," according to a spokesman for a French energy company.

Read here for a summary of the state of Germany's energy sector.

France nuclear

Another European country is giving the green light to nuclear power. Finland, Sweden, and Poland have either opened new plants or they plan to.

Now, France moved to speed up the construction of new nuclear plants three months ago. This reverses their course set in 2014 to back off from nuclear. Political opposition came from the Greens, the radical left, and some Communists.

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The bill cut about two years from the process by simplifying administrative procedures and documentation that precedes construction. But construction still won't begin until 2027.

"Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher assured left-wing [opposed] MPs that “voting against renewable energy and nuclear power is voting for fossil fuels. It is a vote for global warming.”

from Euractiv

French nuclear

Would you be surprised to learn that France gets three-quarters of all its electricity from nuclear power plants?  (As a comparison, the U.S. gets only 19% of its electricity from nuclear.) French energy policy sets energy security as a priority.

www.geni.org

They do not have to worry (as much as the rest of Europe does) about Russia's threats to restrict the flow of natural gas, since so much of their energy production is in their own nuclear plants.  In fact they export their abundant/cheap electricity - and pocket 3 billion euros per year doing it.  

France also exports nuclear technology, and they "pioneered waste reprocessing," 

Now - would it surprise you that France plans to slash this super successful nuclear industry?  More tomorrow.

Frexit 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

For many years, France has had a fleet of nuclear power plants which produce most of its energy. Their largest domestic energy source as of 2024 was nuclear. It may be a big reason why les Francais for many years paid a low price for power.

Energy costs are a big aggravation because they pay higher prices now, due to European Union policies. The EU integrates the whole European market for power, including countries like Germany in which power prices are high. The French can't take advantage of their own lower cost power production.

Russia used to provide France with natural gas at a low price. The EU has forbidden that. So, France must now get liquified natural gas from the US at a significantly higher price.

France plans to support the construction and operation of six new nuclear generators. But the EU has opened an "in-depth investigation" into whether that plan complies with their rules. 

There are other issues too, of course. Frexit enthusiasts want their country's freedom to make their own decisions regarding what is best for them. It's sovereignty. Vive la France!

Slashing nuclear #2

Germany's energy policy came with a very high price.  The policy is called energiewende, or energy transition, a move from fossil fuels and nuclear power to much-increased reliance on "renewables," primarily wind and solar.

In 2011, eight of their 17 nuclear power plants were just switched off (a huge capital investment drain in itself).  The remaining nine plants will be phased out from 2015 to 2022.  "Ironically, since shutting down some of their older nuclear plants in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, they now have to import nuclear power from France and the Czech Republic."

To pay for subsidizing those renewables, German households pay about 3 times as much for electricity as Americans do.  About 300,000 households have to cope with power shut-offs per year due to unpaid bills.

Is it all worth the effort and the price the German people have had to pay?  One of the founders of Germany's environmentalist movement, Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, says the alarm raised by the U.N. committee on climate change was wildly exaggerated.

Current nuclear

Nuclear power generation has had its ups and downs over the last few decades. At this time, there's somewhat of a global movement to approve it as a reliable source of non-fossil fuel energy. It comes after a dip in production and public approval due to safety and climate scares. The world total (image) has stabilized and seems likely to increase.

France, Sweden, Finland are all pressing forward. New variations of nuclear power plants are being researched and tried. 

Germany, however, is an exception to all this. Their goal for many years was to eliminate their nuclear power plants. That ill-advised goal was achieved in 2023 when they phased out the last three. Now they depend on oil imported from Russia, solar and wind arrays, and liquid natural gas . . and they pay a high price for power.

from Our World in Data

French thinking

Three weeks ago I asked why France would "slash" their nuclear program.  It could also be asked, how were they able build such a large and successful nuclear industry at all?  Its scope is beyond any other nation's.

A PBS producer interviewed France's General Director for Energy and Raw Materials at the Ministry of Industry, M. Mandil, to find out.  He had the answers. 

Primarily, it seems the French think in a practical way about their energy needs and resources:  "no oil, no gas, no coal, no choice."  Not having significant natural energy resources themselves, they were dependent on outside circumstances and therefore vulnerable.  

But they are well aware that there are risks that must be handled with great skill.  A small-town baker reacted to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster with confident French thinking about their own expertise:

"the Russians, he says, were not "up to the task. But the French scientists and engineers are."