France returns to being an exporter of electricity

[dan_b]

Looks like the combination of getting their nukes back up online and a pretty chunky increase in renewable generation has turned France back into an electricity exporter...

https://www.montelnews.com/news/1503200 ... igh-in-may

[Swwils]

Imagine installing so much nuclear that even after decades of doing naff all it's still easy mode energy policy for your entire country.

[AE-NMidlands]

Imagine installing so much nuclear that even after decades of doing naff all it's still easy mode energy policy for your entire country.

Just as long as you put the blinkers on and ignore all the energy and financial costs of reprocessing and storing the waste... Who cares about the problems we leave to future generations anyway?

[nowty]

And with a big loss and spiralling debt to match.

EDF: French energy giant posts worst-ever results
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64674131

[Swwils]

You'd complain if EDF turned a profit too!

[ALAN/ALAN D]

The NUKES are back up and running.

They require Non Destructive Testing every five years to confirm if they are fit for purpose.

THEY WERE WELL OUT OF DATE BEFORE THE PANDEMIC.

HAVE ANY BEEN TESTED. ?

[dan_b]

That was the issue - over half of France's nuclear fleet was offline for the last year and a bit due to testing and/or repairs.

And I'm not surprised that if over half of their fleet was offline that they weren't selling electricity but instead spending huge amounts on not generating it, and on importing it from other countries. But also those cost-overruns will still be hurting from the three EPRs (although the one in Finland is now generating commercially).

[nowty]

You'd complain if EDF turned a profit too!

The UK part of EDF made a nice profit of £1.12 billion.
https://www.cityam.com/edf-uk-rakes-in- ... ty-prices/

[Swwils]

The irony is that like us, they were offered the pure American designs and decided to french them up and it's those causing the most issue.

At least they kept some pure American ones unlike us... Magnox was never really a goer.

[Moxi]

But as we have covered elsewhere Magnox was never ever about power generation, it was something far more strategic.

Besides that key fact there's an entire industry built on who's reactor design is better than the other companies and they all ignore the same sad truth, splitting atoms for energy is efficient BUT the mining and production of fuel and the subsequent reprocessing and safe storage of spent fuel is very very inefficient and thus astronomically expensive.

That's more expensive than even the American economy has been able to stomach over the last 60 years and they arguably had the world leading economy for the greater proportion of that period.

Hence why they decouple power generation costs from both fuel production and spent fuel reprocessing in order to make it look competitive.

I have said it before and I will say it again - if you want nuclear power you have to do it as a nationalised business - otherwise you end up like we are now with the tax payer paying for decommissioning, reprocessing and long term storage as well as paying for electricity that's more expensive than other prime mover sources.

Nuclear - a strategic national choice NOT an entrepreneurial challenge.

Moxi