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This "France is looking to reduce their dependence on nuclear energy" statement can get dicey because of different contexts that it is used. So I apologize if I am responding to a context you aren't implying. It is often used as "look, even France doesn't want nuclear!" which frankly just isn't true. We have to look at France and how much carbon it produces. Right now it is one of the lowest producers in Europe. Let's look at the electricity map[0]. Sweden, Norway, and France are leagues ahead of others in terms of carbon emissions. France's plan is first to replace existing natural gas, biomass, and coal with renewable resources. The second part of the equation is that their reactors are reaching EOL, so do you build more or replace them? If you pay attention to energy trends solar and wind (something France has an abundance of) is getting much cheaper and battery storage is getting cheaper (France doesn't have to bet as much on battery storage since they can over produce and sell excess energy, which they currently do a fair amount of). So if you're going to take bets this is still a good bet. A big part of a good and stable power grid is by having a diversification of energy resources. 75% of your energy being dependent upon one resource is not a good idea. No matter the resource. Even 50% is high, but acceptable. They aren't planning from going away from reactors, there's even one under development. But you also want to hedge your bets. If any of these factors (solar, wind, battery storage, smart grids, ITER, etc) don't pay off, then they need to maintain their nuclear grid. It would take a large revolution in energy development for France to be able to still produce so little carbon and provide its citizens with a modernized (electrified) country. Also consider that France doesn't have good access to hydro like Norway and Sweden do so its options for clean energy are nuclear, solar, and wind (lots!). They should, and are planning on, using a diversification of these. Nuclear provides a strong baseload and the others supplement. You may notice that this is a key argument made by many proponents of nuclear. Anyone that says the grid should be entirely nuclear is an armchair scientist who understands very little about nuclear or the climate. But the same is true for those that think we can solve the issue with just solar and wind. So if you're saying France is turning away from nuclear, then this is adding desires into a plan that does not express or concern itself with those desires. A big part of this decision is about diversification and increasing energy independence (just like recycling fuel is a big part of their energy independence, which they power a whopping 17% of their grid with recycled nuclear alone). [0] https://www.electricitymap.org/zone/FR |