Nearly 80 percent of the French public support nuclear energy,...

Nearly 80 percent of the French public support nuclear energy, up 20 points from 2016, according to an Elabe poll for Les Échos published in November. Even Germany – with the Greens now in government – is extending the life of three nuclear power stations until April.

“The discourse has changed a lot against natural gas, against fossil fuels more generally, in favour of basically carbon-free energy sources like nuclear,” Kirkegaard noted. “Hollande’s pledge in 2012 is the legacy of a bygone age.”

But the consequences of Hollande’s pact have contributed to France’s current nuclear woes, Kirkegaard continued. In particular, it will have put many talented engineers off the French nuclear sector, he said, because “people are not going to pledge their future to an industry perceived to be in terminal decline”. Moreover, “there’s clearly a reason why so many French reactors are as old as they are”, Kirkegaard added: “They haven’t been consistently replaced – so Hollande’s statements absolutely had an effect.”