The French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) has released the synthesis of a report on production costs of EDF’s existing nuclear fleet, which is estimated for the period 2026-2030 at €60.72/MWh for the full cost and at €57.82/MWh for the accounting cost. This estimate of the full cost takes into account in particular operating costs (including fuel), investments in the existing fleet (continued operation including the major upgrade programme "Grand Carénage"), management of nuclear materials and waste (including operating costs and associated investments), post-operation and investment costs in the Flamanville 3 EPR construction project. It is based on a production hypothesis for the existing nuclear fleet (including Flamanville 3) consistent with the median hypothesis taken by RTE in its prospective work on the power mix, at a level of around 360 TWh over the period 2026-2030. However, this cost estimate does not cover the needs relating to financing the development of new nuclear reactors.
CRE’s cost projection is in line with previous assessments. The average production cost of nuclear reactors was estimated at around €60/MWh in 2013 (i.e. +20% compared to 2011 due to large investments in safety according to Cour des Comptes). The ARENH law (Accès régulé à l'électricité nucléaire historique), passed in 2010, obliges EDF to sell part of its nuclear generation (maximum of 100 TWh/year or about a quarter of nuclear generation) to alternative suppliers on the wholesale market at a regulated price (“ARENH price”), which has been set by the CRE at €42/MWh since 2012. This scheme is set to end in 2025.
Nuclear power accounted for 62% of the total production in 2022. The country has 56 PWR nuclear reactors on 18 sites. In 2022, 30 nuclear reactors went offline for maintenance due to stress corrosion, with the availability of the fleet declining to under 35% in August.