French capacity factors are rising because half their fleet was offline [1] in 2022-23 and they are finally getting out of that. But apparently nuclear power is 100% reliable and does not need any backup since that would add to the already unfathomably large costs for new built nuclear power.

In terms of total energy produced France is far off their earlier peaks. [2] They just keep shrinking the nuclear share.

[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/business/nuclear-power-fr...

[2]: https://ember-energy.org/data/electricity-data-explorer/?ent...

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mpweiher 18 hours ago | parent [-]

2022. My kind of humor.

Until March of 2023, decreasing the nuclear share was the law in France. The law said that the nuclear share was to be decreased to below 50%.

In addition, the absolute capacity of nuclear power was not allowed to increase.

So in order to build even just one new nuclear power plant, for example to maintain industrial capacity, they had to shut down two existing plants.

Which generally makes very little sense. And it precluded building nuclear power plants the way we know how to build them quickly and cheaply: multiple units of the same design, slightly overlapping.

So the law forced France to build Flamanville 3 the exact way we know how not to do it.

	▲	godelski 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think you're ignoring what actually happened. In 2022 half the reactors were down for repair and maintenance. This didn't have anything to do with the French's move to becoming less reliant upon nuclear power[0]. This had to do with scheduled maintenance being delayed due to covid, causing it to all happen at once. Then there was a rush on it due to the war in Ukraine breaking out. France was importing energy from Germany at that time (a rare thing in of itself) but then Germany being highly dependent on natural gas caused a big squeeze for energy all across Europe. Germany being the #2 exporter of electricity in Europe (France typically being #1)[1] So while I agree with part of your response that ViewTrick is missing, but you are also ignoring a critical part of the reality and that makes it so you don't actually address their comment. You completely missed their first point and why it happened. You also completely miss the big reason for why there's a large increase of nuclear share post 2022. You're instead focusing on one plant which isn't representative of the reality of things. So you're not answering their misunderstandings because you don't actually address the data they are looking at. [0] Which is a good thing! I want new nuclear power, but I also want a diversified portfolio of energy sources. [1] https://www.worldstopexports.com/electricity-exports-country...