4 ms·

Can someone explain why France has insane nuclear capacity (75%+ of their energy), yet their energy isn’t too cheap to meter?

• akvadrako 3y ago
  Until recently they had some of the cheapest electricity in western Europe. But they haven't been building new plants for a while and it's gotten more expensive.
• jillesvangurp 3y ago
  It's actually 70%. And recently a bit less because a lot of their ancient reactors were down for extensive maintenance in the middle of an energy crisis. The reason their energy is not cheap is because nuclear is actually really expensive; also for the French. Instead of charging via electricity bills, the French just rolled that into their taxes. The energy bills don't quite cover the cost. The EDF, which runs their nuclear plants and is state owned, has a lot of debt, and has had some record losses recently. But it's OK; they are too big to fail and the French government will bail them out as needed as they have done for decades. At great cost to tax payers of course. But it keeps the electricity bills low. The French have a nuclear industry for the same reason the US and the British and other nuclear powers do: it serves their military goals to have a functioning nuclear industry so they can maintain their status as a nuclear power. That means a lot of state funding has historically been available to keep these industries going. Without public funding, it's not really that attractive financially to be involved with nuclear.
• evilos 3y ago
  The French government has been trying to kill their fleet for over a decade now. They've only recently come around.