42. ELECTRICITY IN FRANCE
The electricity stats from France in 2002 (figures in billion kilowatt-hours):
Net generation: 528.6
Hydro: 60.5
Nuclear: 414.9
Geo/Solar/Wind/Biomass: 4.1
Conventional thermal: 49.0
Net consumption: 414.7
Imports: 3.0
Exports: 79.9Source
This is extraordinary. As you can see, France can already meet 100% of its electricity needs with nuclear power. Fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal) have no relevance whatsoever to the electrical grid in France.
Coal use in France is very low, and has been mostly replaced by nuclear. Any remaining coal usage for fuel can be easily eliminated, as the stats show, so France only needs a small amount of coal for industrial uses like coke.
The French do use a great deal of oil, but undoubtedly most of that is for fueling private automobiles which are not strictly necessary. Transport within France can be shifted to the nuclear powered rail system. The only remaining uses which cannot immediately be phased out would be industrial feedstocks, local trucking, and agricultural machinery.
Finally, France uses a large amount of gas, but that too can be shifted to nuclear. Heat can be supplied electrically, or through direct nuclear process heat for industry.
Let's face it. France is not going to collapse due to energy problems. So how is civilization going to collapse if France doesn't collapse? Are we supposed to believe that the Americans will be eating each other, and the British will be implementing Pol Pot style depopulation pogroms, while the French go their merry way, gloating and watching the whole thing on TV??? I don't think that's possible. The Anglos will cheerfully march through hell to avoid collapse, simply because France isn't collapsing, and they hate the French.
posted by JD @ 1:44 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Switzerland is much the same, all Nuclear and hydro power. Denmark and Norway lead the world in Hydro and Wind power.
JD:
Good for the Frenches. But you have to realize that with a population only 0.8% of the world total, France is consuming 16% of the world's total installed nuclear elctric power. They are using a much bigger than fair share of the world's uranium resources, only because the rest of the world allow them.
Should the world's current electricity production all turn to nuclear except for the hydroelectric ones, then we are talking about at least 5 times the current installed nuclear power capacity in the world. At current low consumption rate, economically mineable Uranium will run out in 50 years. At 5 times more consumption, it will run out in 10 years. And that's talking about complete depletion. If you talk about peak uranium it's much earlier.
Not to meantion if we stop using gasoline, and drive electric vehicles instead, the world demand of electricity will instantly at least tripple from current level.
Once every one starts to build nuclear power plants, I wonder where the Frenches can go to buy their uranium? And not to meantion where the French can find a dump ground for spent nuclear fuel rods?
For a time, France was leading in fast breeder reactor development. (Phoenix 1). I understand that plant has been abandoned and that Phoenix 2 work has stopped. A successful fast breeder would greatly extend useful life of Uranium and mitigate some of the problems of spent, fissioned uranium fuel. What's the latest on breeders?
tfs
I have inquiry about the number of man power of electricty in France
IT would be important to note that mining uranium requires fossil fuels, not to mention the process from ore to fuel grade. Furthermore, I have never heard of a uranium mine in France, have you?
They import their product from Canada and Niger and without fossil fuels they might find their energy future in serious peril.
Finally, as uranium stores become depleted, unconventional uranium mining and processing will have a lower energy return on energy invested.
Alternative energy sources--especially nuclear--fail to ensure a secure energy future. True solutions to the impending crisis require dramatic structural and systemic adjustments to industrialized society and culture.
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