Vital Trivia

Nuclear power is often touted as a solution for fossil fuel depletion with France held up as a shining example as what can be done. An example of a country successfully running on nuclear power, proving for all the world to see, how viable nuclear is. I thought I’d better look at the numbers, here is what I found (data from here and here):

Despite their nuclear industry France is a net energy importer, with its total energy consumption exceeding its production by a very large margin. French primary energy consumption is 262.9 MTOE (million tonne oil equivalent) with 101.4 MTOE coming from nuclear and the balance coming from imported oil, gas and coal. The only energy France can really claim as indigenous is the 14.8 MTOE (5.6%) from hydroelectricity and a very small amount of gas.

Whilst their electricity is mostly nuclear (78% in 2003) when total energy consumption is considered nuclear only provides 37.6% of French energy. However that doesn’t tell the whole story since the total energy figure doesn’t include the energy cost of complete decommissioning and ongoing waste management after the power station has been shut down as France doesn’t have (no one does) a comprehensive decommissioning and waste management programme. Nor does it include the non-trivial energy costs of mining and milling uranium ore since that mostly happens outside France.

France imports most of its uranium from Canada and Niger with smaller amounts coming from Australia, Kazakhstan and Russia.

I would even go as far as saying that despite the French nuclear industry they are in a worse position facing global oil and gas than many others. With virtually zero oil extraction of their own France is the world’s fifth-greatest net oil importer.

The picture isn’t much better regarding gas. Again with virtually zero gas extraction of their own and being the 13th greatest gas consumer in the world (consumption up 30% in the last decade) France imports 95% of its gas, mostly by pipeline from Norway, Russia, Algeria, and the Netherlands. France is also the greatest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Europe, receiving 25% this way mostly from Algeria.

Coal is no better with mining in France by its state-owned coal company which had been on the decline for decades, phased-out altogether in April 2004 in favour of imports. Coal supplies approximately 5% of total energy consumption.

So where does all this leave France? Extremely dependent on imported uranium, oil and gas that’s where so next time someone mentions France as an example of energy self sufficiency or security through nuclear power you can point out that it just isn’t the case, despite having the 2nd largest nuclear industry in the world (after the United States).

This post was written by Chris Vernon