"Why France is eyeing nuclear power again"

From MIT's Technology Review, Oct 16:

The nation asked its major utility to make plans for six huge reactors.

After years of backing away from nuclear power, France suddenly wants to build six huge reactors.

This week Le Monde reported that the government asked EDF, the country's main state-controlled energy company, to work up plans to build three new nuclear plants, each with a pair of its EPR reactors. The third-generation design produces enough electricity to supply 1.5 million people, and automatically shuts down and cools in the event of an accident.

It doesn’t appear that any developments are final—or even funded—at this stage. But energy experts were surprised by the news because it seemed to suggest France is adjusting its stance on nuclear. Plus early efforts to build the same style of pressurized-water reactor have been plagued with cost overruns and repeated delays. 

The nation produces more than 70% of its electricity from nuclear power, the highest share of any nation in the world. But sentiment shifted after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

French nuclear regulators pushed for safety upgrades to existing plants, and in 2015 the government voted to cut the share of nuclear in the nation’s energy supply to 50% by 2025 (a date later pushed out to 2035)....

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Lesson from Fukushima: If you are going to build your nukes in an earthquake zone that can experience a 9.1 magnitude quake (2011 Tōhoku), don't site them so close to the coast that they are at risk of the 14-metre tsunami overtopping the 6 metre seawall and flooding everything just as the typhoon season is revving up with the first cyclone to strike the area two months after the earthquake and tsunami.