[seanmcdirmid]

Push for less nuclear? Where? Germany, Japan?

Anyways, electric cars are made for renewables (sans hydro) and nuclear that provide energy when it might not be needed but can be used for charging batteries instead. Gas will fill in the gaps, but it's on demand nature means it doesn't really become more useful like the other sources do with car electrification.

[drdrey]

France too. Public perception is against it, but so are the economics (nuclear is expensive to produce and decommission)

[seanmcdirmid]

France is way ahead on nuclear, getting most of their energy from it (90%). What are they going to replace it with?

[epistasis]

Only time will tell, but right now I would bet on wind, solar, storage, imports, exports, etc. Eventually those existing reactors are going to age and need to be decommissioned, the median age is now more than 30 years old. Every year, construction of the EPR design is proving to be more and more expensive than they thought.

Of course, if somebody in the Western world can figure out how to build a nuclear reactor on time with a competitive budget, nuclear may enter that mix of new construction. But right now, with the past decades' trends, it is not looking good for nuclear.

[seanmcdirmid]

So is this something you are saying about France or something France has said itself. Last time I checked, France was still pretty dedicated to nuclear, unlike Germany....which gets a lot of exported nuclear power from France.

[epistasis]

I believe they are very dedicated to nuclear as well. However, the entire point of my comment was that they are having a difficult time constructing nuclear reactors, just like everybody else in the Western world. Without new construction, their existing nuclear fleet (median age >30 years) will eventually need to be decommissioned just due to time.