Identifying remaining socio-technical challenges at the national level: France

France isn’t only a country known for its cheese… it’s also a country of nuclear power. With its 58 nuclear reactors (63,000 megawatts), producing 79% of the country’s electricity, France is arguably the world’s leader in the production of nuclear energy. It is estimated that the relative contribution of nuclear energy to power production in France will decline to 70% in 2020 - the main reason for this being governmental investments into renewable energies. While France’s reactors were all constructed between 1977 and 1996, two new reactors are to be commissioned in the near future: one in Flamanville in 2012 and one in Penly in 2017.