PARIS — A summer of brutal heat waves in France is fueling concerns about whether the country’s nuclear energy infrastructure can survive life on the planet’s fastest-warming continent.
Monday’s broiling temperatures in France forced EDF to stop three of France’s 57 nuclear reactors and reduce production in another seven, the state-owned utility provider said in a statement. When the mercury rose to record-breaking levels last month, a trio of reactors went offline and five were slowed down, causing an 8.7 percent dip in power production just as air conditioners caused a rise in electricity demand.
None of the shutdowns caused power outages, so we’re a long way from offline reactors plunging people into the dark ages.
But the appetite for France’s cheap, carbon-free electricity is about to explode. Paris has in recent years tried to leverage its abundant nuclear power to court promising, energy-intensive industries like artificial intelligence and cloud computing, hoping new investments in these fields can kickstart a moribund economy.
