Nuclear power
Grid-scale electricity from the heat released when heavy atomic nuclei split — the dominant low-carbon dispatchable source in Europe today.
A nuclear power plant uses controlled fission — uranium-235 or plutonium-239 atoms struck by neutrons split, releasing heat, which boils water, which drives a turbine. The fuel is dense: one kilogram of uranium holds roughly two million times the energy of one kilogram of coal. The hard parts are three: uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication require industrial infrastructure; the spent fuel remains radioactive for millennia; and construction costs and timelines have grown, not fallen, with each generation of plant. France built 56 reactors between 1974 and 1999 and now generates around 70% of its electricity from them — the highest share of any large economy.
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France ran the grid in reverse
On the hottest June day France has recorded, its rivers grew too warm to cool the reactors — and Europe's dominant power exporter briefly bought Spanish solar to cover its own margin.
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