French Nuclear Outages Risk Making Europe’s Gas Crisis Worse
The Penly nuclear power plant, operated by EDF, in Penly, Normandy, France.
Photographer: Nathan Laine/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The cost of electricity in France jumped, adding to Europe’s gas woes, as depressed nuclear output squeezes the market.
France’s nuclear reactors are operating at less than half their full capacity and this week have produced the least electricity at this time of year since at least 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The country, where warm weather is already making it tougher to cool the fleet of reactors, is importing power from neighboring countries like the UK, which historically has taken energy from France.