French Nuclear Closure Prompts Questions Over Power Supply

摘要

French President Francois Hollande was elected in May after a campaign based in part on promises to cut nuclear's share of electricity output from 75% to 50% by 2025. He made the first move this month when he unveiled plans to close EDF's Fessenheim nuclear power station in Alsace, near the German border, by the end of 2016. The announcement - in which Hollande also upheld the ban on shale gas hydraulic fracturing - came just weeks after grid operator RTE warned that closure of the 1.8 gigawatt Fessenheim plant, along with the shutdown by 2016 of 7.2 GW of coal stations and old oil-fired units, could leave the country with little spare generating capacity, particularly in winter (EIG's EI New Energy, Sep.6'12).