History of Nuclear reactors in France
France started up its first nuclear reactor in 1962, and while nuclear energy did not really take off in France until the 1980s France has since then utilized nuclear power to its full extent. In fact, today there are a total of 56 operating nuclear reactors. France currently derives 70% of its power from nuclear energy production and even ships its nuclear power other places. While they do not produce the most nuclear power in the world Frances energy grid does in fact run on the highest percentage of nuclear power then any other energy grid in the world. Interestingly the country that actually produces the most nuclear power is the USA. To give you a better idea of the historical trends, they can be scene in the below graph.
Frances intentions for more reactors as well as some nuclear power background
The reason that the French government wants 6-8 more nuclear reactors is to begin to replace 14 of their decommissioned nuclear reactors. So, the government simply wants to replace these, so they feel that France is operating at peak nuclear compacity. One of the main issues with nuclear reactors is their sheer size and high initial costs. In fact just 1 nuclear reactor costs billions of euros initially to build, as well as raw material costs and then fairly constant repairs to ensure it is well within safety limits as if something goes wrong they can potentially cause catastrophic damage. One of the most important raw materials is the radioactive uranium, which can also be quite expensive not just financially to supply but also environmentally, as uranium is often mined through chemical leaching processes which cause major harm to the environment. This is something that is often overlooked when people want to classify nuclear energy as a renewable energy resource. Not to mention the actual uranium itself once used because of its slow molecular decay rate can take millions and even theoretically billions of years to reach the earths normal radiation levels. This piece of information is very important to understand as you might here on the news that nuclear power is a clean and renewable power source that will run the future, when in reality the true environmental costs can not be ignored.
Summary of Recent News Article
In a recent news article President Macron spoke of France wanting to build 6 new nuclear reactors and could potentially expand to 8 as well as extending the legal life of many reactors which are in operation today. He claims they shall be construction by 2028 so they could be potentially ready by 2035. This is being done as many of the current nuclear facilities were built in the 1980s and are likely to reach the end of their operating life in the 2030s even if their legal operating life is extended. However, Macron said “I want no reactor that has the capacity of producing (electricity) to be closed in the future…unless obviously for safety reasons.” Which is coming at a time where the energy market is becoming unstable and war in Ukraine is making this market even more unstable as gas and oil prices in the USA break record prices from the instability as Russia is the second largest global producer of oil behind the USA. Even so the reactors that the French government is proposing to build will cost an estimated 50 billion euros which is no small investment by any countries standards especially considering they could take ruffly a decade to build. Another important fact to consider is that some environmentalists are angry with this proposal as they believe that France should be investing in more “real” renewable energy technologies so France can really become environmentally neutral and reach its many proposed and active environmental goals.
If you wish to read the whole article, please visit it at the link below: