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Except for the fact that french nuclear power is highly subsidized (partly by military budgets, partly other subsidies, partly by grossly underfunding for stora

Except for the fact that french nuclear power is highly subsidized (partly by military budgets, partly other subsidies, partly by grossly underfunding for storage and decommissioning costs, which they are required to put funds aside for), is breaking at the seams last year for some time >80% of the power generation was down in France due to maintenance (picked up by "intermittent solar and wind").

Zealotux 3y ago
Every time the fact nuclear power is subsidized is being brought up, I can't help but think of how much energy, in general, is highly subsidized, like other fossils and renewables. What makes it special in the case of nuclear?
- pfdietz 3y ago
  Moving a technology down an experience curve is a positive externality. Technologies with good experience curves (like renewables) justify subsidy because of this. Nuclear, unfortunately, has not shown good experience effects.
pyrale 3y ago
> last year for some time >80% of the power generation was down in France due to maintenance Oh, so low? I heard it was 102%, and we had to activate the hamster wheels in order to make up for the deficit? Hint: Nuclear isn't even 80% of France's nuclear production when every reactor is up.
- cycomanic 3y ago
  Yes and for some time 100% of France's nuclear reactors were down, either due to maintenance or heat.
  - pyrale 3y ago
    This simply never happened. It's a matter of public record [1], it shouldn't be hard to check your numbers and see that they're wrong... [1]: https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-power/122922-french-nuclear-output-to-start-2023-at-record-low-amid-long-term-outages-fuel-savings-stops https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insight...
    - cycomanic 3y ago
      That link doesn't contradict what I said? I said in summer last year (almost?, at the time I saw 2 different sources, one French said all, one German said almost all) all nuclear power plants were offline. Macron even went on TV arguing that they pulled forward maintenance to "prepare for the winter to support the German's lack of Gas" (seems not to happened according to your link, they were on record low output at the turn of the year).
      - pyrale 3y ago
        The link shows ~25 reactors were up in the summer at the low point, out of 58. If you want another link: [2] states that about half of the reactors were down. I don't know what news sites you use, but "almost all" or "all" reactors being down is simply false news. [2]: https://www.grs.de/en/news/situation-nuclear-power-plants-france-how-has-situation-evolved-our-neighbouring-country https://www.grs.de/en/news/situation-nuclear-power-plants-fr...

Zealotux 3y ago

Every time the fact nuclear power is subsidized is being brought up, I can't help but think of how much energy, in general, is highly subsidized, like other fossils and renewables. What makes it special in the case of nuclear?

pfdietz 3y ago
Moving a technology down an experience curve is a positive externality. Technologies with good experience curves (like renewables) justify subsidy because of this. Nuclear, unfortunately, has not shown good experience effects.

pyrale 3y ago

> last year for some time >80% of the power generation was down in France due to maintenance Oh, so low? I heard it was 102%, and we had to activate the hamster wheels in order to make up for the deficit? Hint: Nuclear isn't even 80% of France's nuclear production when every reactor is up.

cycomanic 3y ago
Yes and for some time 100% of France's nuclear reactors were down, either due to maintenance or heat.
- pyrale 3y ago
  This simply never happened. It's a matter of public record [1], it shouldn't be hard to check your numbers and see that they're wrong... [1]: https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-power/122922-french-nuclear-output-to-start-2023-at-record-low-amid-long-term-outages-fuel-savings-stops https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insight...
  - cycomanic 3y ago
    That link doesn't contradict what I said? I said in summer last year (almost?, at the time I saw 2 different sources, one French said all, one German said almost all) all nuclear power plants were offline. Macron even went on TV arguing that they pulled forward maintenance to "prepare for the winter to support the German's lack of Gas" (seems not to happened according to your link, they were on record low output at the turn of the year).
    - pyrale 3y ago
      The link shows ~25 reactors were up in the summer at the low point, out of 58. If you want another link: [2] states that about half of the reactors were down. I don't know what news sites you use, but "almost all" or "all" reactors being down is simply false news. [2]: https://www.grs.de/en/news/situation-nuclear-power-plants-france-how-has-situation-evolved-our-neighbouring-country https://www.grs.de/en/news/situation-nuclear-power-plants-fr...