Le Maire: France Will Not Give Up Competitive Advantage Of Nuclear Power

French Finance Minster Bruno Le Maire has told an industry conference that, "nuclear power represents a 'red line' for France," and "France will not be prepared to give up the competitive advantages linked to [nuclear power]."

• Le Maire: "France's nuclear industry is not negotiable and will never be negotiable."
• Le Maire: "Government wants to propose new regulation regarding the price of electricity by the end of 2023."
• Le Maire's comments come as EDF today returns to full state ownership after nearly 18 years as a privately listed company and Paris clashes with Berlin over the role of nuclear power in Europe's green energy transition.
• Bloomberg reports: "The €9.7 billion ($10.4 billion) bill for nationalizing EDF has bought the French government the power to align the strategy of Europe’s biggest electricity producer with its own priorities..."
• EDF is however facing serious problems with nuclear productivity which, last year, led to the lowest output since 1988. Celine Cherubin at Moody’s Investors Service noted last week: “The targeted improvement in the nuclear fleet availability appears to be modest. The likelihood of unexpected new faults requiring immediate fixes has increased.”