Nuclear power use: French public opinion 2004-2013
Opinion of the French on energy production
In a survey from 2015, 40 percent of French people considered energy independence to be the strongest argument in favor of nuclear energy, even though most of the uranium used to produce nuclear energy is imported by France from other regions of the world. On the other hand, public opinion in France seems to be mostly in favor of investments in the development of renewable energies rather than solely in the nuclear sector. Moreover, French people still do not seem very confident in the safety of nuclear energy, since 8 out of 10 respondents stated that they would not want to live near a nuclear power plant .
Nuclear power generation in France
In France, nuclear energy represents the most important source of power generation (about 70%), with 58 nuclear reactors located in various plants in the country . Most of them are situated in the center and the north of the country. The oldest French nuclear plant in Fessenheim hosted two reactors, whereas the biggest plant in Gravelines had 6.