In
France,
as of 2002,
Électricité de France (EDF) — the country's main
electricity generation and distribution company — manages the country's 59
nuclear power plants.
As of 2004, these plants produce 79% of both EDF's and France's power production (of which much is exported),
[1] making EDF the world leader in production of nuclear power by percentage. In the same year, 425.8
TWh out of the country's total production of 540.6 TWh was from nuclear power.
[1]France is the world's largest net exporter of electric power, exporting 18% of its total production (about 100 TWh) to Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, and Germany, and its electricity cost is among the lowest in Europe.[1][2]
In 2006, the French Government asked Areva and EDF to build a next generation nuclear reactor, the EPR (European Pressurized Reactor), at the Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant.
France has a long relationship with nuclear power, starting with Henri Becquerel's discovery of natural radioactivity in the 1890s and continued by famous French nuclear scientists like Pierre and Marie Curie.
