We have to talk about France

J’adore France, the land of baguette, impeccable aesthetic and the most passionate protesters on earth. But France’s reputation goes beyond fashion influencers posing in front of the Eiffel Tower. It has made a name for itself as the land of ⚡️nuclear power⚡️.

France & nuclear power: a love story that began a century ago

France’s history with spicy rocks (aka nuclear fuel) goes back more than 100 years when French physicist Henri Becquerel discovered natural radioactivity in the 1890s. It continued with the work of Pierre and Marie Curie who discovered polonium, radium and thorium, all radioactive stuff. Badass.

Fast forward to 1962 when France opened its first nuclear power plant. Life was pretty good(ish). But only a decade later (in 1973), the world was hit by the “first oil shock”.

A moment to discuss said oil shock

Basically, there were some countries who were #blessed with oil and sold it to other countries who weren’t as blessed. One day, because of political drama, some oil-rich countries decided to put an oil embargo on targeted nations. WOOF. This caused the price of oil to skyrocket 300%. There’s a whole load of politics we could discuss, but I’ll let you google instead.

At the time, most of France’s electricity was made from burning oil from other countries. The French prime minister, Pierre Messmer, was like, “Fuck that shit. We need to become energy independent.” I’m paraphrasing here, but you get the point. A new phrase started being passed around that inspired real action: “In France, we do not have oil, but we have ideas.” And just like that, France was a changed country.

How France started to clean up their act (literally)

Over the next 18 years, France built 48 nuclear reactors. And even though climate change wasn’t really something people were concerned with yet, France’s carbon emissions went down by 79% for each unit of electricity and air quality improved. Since then, the country has consistently had one of the cheapest and cleanest electricities in Europe.

But something else happened. While emissions dropped dramatically, their economy kept growing. France’s story shows us that nuclear power is a true and tested way to cut emissions fast and that, contrary to popular belief, it is entirely possible to keep a country’s economy growing while doing so.