Nuclear power in France: A Success Story?

In my last couple of blog posts, I’ve been talking about when Nuclear energy goes wrong. But it is important to remember that Nuclear energy does have its successes. In one place this is evident is France, which produces the largest amount of nuclear energy as a percentage of its total electricity production compared to any of country in the world; around 70-80% depending on France’s electricity demand for the day (Philip Ball 2011). In 2007, France had the second largest EU population of 63 million, the world’s 7^th largest GDP, and 8^th largest energy consumption, while still providing 47% of all nuclear energy in the EU (Mycle Schneider 2009). Hopefully this gives you a picture of the scale of France’s nuclear power programme.

Nuclear share of total energy generation (Adamantiades et al. 2009) 

Why and How

In 1973, an oil crisis occurred caused by an embargo by the members of OAPEC (Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) due to American involvement in the Middle East (no surprise there). This led to France’s president at the time, Pierre Messmer, to release a plan in 1974 to gain energy independence for France through Nuclear power (WNA 2016). This led to a large scale nuclear power project which was envisioned to produce 170 nuclear power stations by 2000 (Sezin Topçu 2007); while the number of stations was only 58 in 2011 (Philip Ball 2011), the efficiency of their energy production makes up for the lower amount. The rise in nuclear power was backed with at least 75% of all public research and development expenditures for energy being used for nuclear fission between 1985 and 2001 (Mycle Schneider 2009).

As France is relatively low in energy resources apart from coal that is out-priced by cheap imports (Philip Ball 2011), Nuclear energy was one of the only viable options that could give France the energy independence it desires. Other advantages of nuclear over coal is the fuel used; Uranium doesn’t degrade over time while coal does, It has 1/10 the cost of coal in terms of equivalent energy produced, and is 4 magnitudes (10⁴) smaller than coal in terms of equivalent energy (Adamantiades et al. 2009) .

From the outset, the French Government chose to reprocess used fuel to re-cover uranium and plutonium, to help reduce the amount of high-level waste that needs disposal. This has led to 20% of all the electricity produced by EDF (Electricte de France) to come from recycled fuel (Philip Ball 2011). For the disposal of final waste, France is planning on opening a deep geological repository for a permanent solution. Research at its facility in Bure, has confirmed the rocks suitability to the task and should this go ahead, it could store all of France’s current nuclear waste, and that created in the coming 20 years from its completion (Declan Butler 2010).

Is it a true success?

Final energy supply in France in 2007 (Mycle Schneider 2009)

From what I’ve talked about already, it seems this is a total success. France produces a large amount of nuclear energy, should soon have the capacity to store its waste and you would think also has a decreased CO₂ emission. However this isn’t the whole case. In terms of final energy, only 16% of this comes from nuclear energy, a large difference from the ~75% of electricity that nuclear produces (Mycle Schneider 2009). This is due to the fact that only 21% of final energy supply is electricity, with a large chunk of the final energy supply, 73%, being fossil fuels (Mycle Schneider 2009). Of this 73%, 48% is oil, which begs the question; Has France gained energy independence through nuclear? To me it seems like a no. It is true that they have covered large strides since 1973 in terms of nuclear production, but this doesn’t really include sectors that aren’t electricity production. Transport, residential and industrial use is not really affected by the increase in nuclear power, and won’t be until electrification of vehicles and processes reaches a wider audience. CO₂ emissions haven’t really fallen either, and since the 1990s, have either remained stagnant or increased slightly over the years .The fact that in 2007, per capita oil consumption in France was higher than the EU average, than in a non-nuclear Italy, and in Germany who is phasing out nuclear (Mycle Schneider 2009); Too me it is the final nail in the coffin for France’s energy independence.

CO2 Emissions from France in 1970-2006 (Mycle Schneider 2009)

France’s story makes me wonder, that for how far France has come in terms of nuclear energy, it has a long way to go if it wants to be energy independent and for nuclear energy to be a big part of that. But is it possible for a country to be powered solely by nuclear? Can all the processes be powered by nuclear that are now driven by fossil fuels? Electric powered cars are available now, but larger costs and reduced range stops them from becoming the main source of transport. Perhaps the technology is not where it needs to be, for nuclear power to become the large force in energy production it could be.