The Decline of French Nuclear: How We Sold Off Our Energy Sovereignty

Table of Contents

1. The Golden Age of French Nuclear (1974-1990)
2. Act 1: The Assassination of Superphénix (1997)
3. Act 2: The Abandonment of ASTRID (2019)
4. Act 3: European Liberalization — EDF Bled Dry
5. The Thorium Case: Bill Gates Recovers Our Technologies
6. Act 4: The MARA/Exaion Affair (2025)
7. Act 5: The Great Sell-Off by Presidents (2007-2024)
8. What Experts Say
9. Perspective: Bitcoin as a New Form of Energy Storage
10. Timeline of the Decline
11. The Late Revival (2025)
12. Conclusion: Who Is Responsible?
13. Main Sources

France was a world pioneer in nuclear. We had the cheapest and most reliable electricity in Europe. Our engineers developed revolutionary technologies that the whole world envied.

Today, we pay top price for our electricity, we import energy, and we watch China and the United States exploit technologies that we invented then abandoned.

How did we get here? Here is the timeline of an organized energy sabotage.

The Golden Age of French Nuclear (1974-1990)

The cheapest electricity in Europe, 76% nuclear, and world leadership in breeder reactors.

The Messmer Plan: A Sovereign Vision

On March 6, 1974, in the context of the oil shock, Prime Minister Pierre Messmer announced an ambitious plan: build 13 nuclear power plants of 1000 MW to guarantee France's energy independence.

The figures of success:

• 1981: 37% of French electricity is nuclear
• 1984: 55% of electricity is nuclear
• 1990: 76.2% of electricity is nuclear — historic record

The Cheapest Electricity in Europe

Thanks to this strategy, France benefited from:

"After the oil counter-shock, the nominal price of electricity evolved very moderately until 2007. This relative stability is explained by the commissioning of numerous nuclear power plants during the 1980s."

— INSEE, "French spending on electricity since 1960"

📄 Source: INSEE - French spending on electricity

The Breeder Reactor Program: 3,000 Years of Energy

France was also developing fast neutron reactors (FNR), called "breeders":

• Rapsodie (1967): First experimental reactor
• Phénix (1973): 250 MW, industrial prototype
• Superphénix (1985): 1240 MW, the most powerful breeder reactor in the world

The revolutionary potential:

• Use of 100% of uranium (vs 1% in conventional reactors)
• Production of 50 to 100 times more electricity per ton of uranium
• With the 250,000 tons of spent fuel stored at La Hague: 3,000 years of electricity guaranteed

📄 Source: Senate Report on the nuclear energy of the future

Act 1: The Assassination of Superphénix (1997)

Jospin closes the most powerful breeder reactor in the world to satisfy his ecologist allies.

The Political Context

On June 19, 1997, the new Prime Minister Lionel Jospin announced in his general policy speech:

"The breeder reactor called Superphénix will be abandoned."

Why this decision?

• Jospin needed the Greens to form his "plural majority"
• Dominique Voynet, Green leader, became Environment Minister
• Superphénix was the symbol to destroy for ecologists

An Anti-Democratic Decision

The closure of Superphénix was decided:

• Without parliamentary debate
• Against the advice of the Academy of Sciences
• Without consultation with the CEA or EDF
• At the very moment when the reactor was working perfectly (96% availability in 1996)

"The decision appears to have been made arbitrarily, without government deliberation."

— Parliamentary inquiry commission

📄 Source: Senate Report on energy policy

The Cost of Destruction

"The shutdown of Superphénix was a technical, human, and financial disaster. A triple fault against France."

— Contrepoints, 2022

Act 2: The Abandonment of ASTRID (2019)

Macron secretly abandons €738 million invested and 60 years of research.

A Promising Project Buried

After Superphénix, France launched the ASTRID project (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration) in 2010:

• 600 MW 4th generation reactor
• Objective: demonstrate industrial feasibility of breeders
• Budget already invested: €738 million

The Silent Abandonment

On August 30, 2019, the CEA announced the abandonment of ASTRID. The decision was made "secretly" by the Macron government.

"By deciding secretly in summer 2019 to abandon the ASTRID project, the government and the President of the Republic made a disastrous decision that effectively demotes French nuclear, strikes a blow to the country's energy sovereignty, abandons sixty years of research, and turns its back on a technological means of solving the nuclear waste problem."

— Parliamentary Office for Scientific and Technological Choices

📄 Source: Actu-Environnement - ASTRID shutdown

What France Lost

With the abandonment of ASTRID, France gives up:

• 60 years of research on fast neutrons
• The ability to recycle its nuclear waste
• Its worldwide technological lead
• Its energy sovereignty for centuries to come

Meanwhile:

• Russia continues with the BN-1200
• China advances with the CEFR
• The United States develops TerraPower with Bill Gates

Act 3: European Liberalization — EDF Bled Dry

EDF forced to sell at a loss to its competitors: prices explode instead of falling.

The Brussels Ideology

In December 1996, a European directive imposed the opening of the electricity market to competition. The idea, inspired by Margaret Thatcher's policy, was that competition would lower prices.

Stages of liberalization:

Result? The exact opposite of what was promised: prices exploded.

The NOME Law and ARENH: Organized Theft

The NOME law (New Organization of the Electricity Market) of December 7, 2010 created ARENH (Regulated Access to Historic Nuclear Electricity).

The perverse mechanism:

1. EDF must sell up to 100 TWh/year of nuclear electricity to its competitors
2. The price is fixed at €42/MWh (well below actual production cost)
3. Competitors resell this electricity at market price (sometimes 10x more expensive)
4. EDF loses money on every MWh sold via ARENH
5. Competitors pocket the difference without producing anything

The scandal in numbers (2022):

"The liberalization of the electricity sector: the great scam. EDF subsidizes its competitors who produce nothing."

— Le Vent Se Lève

The Deliberate Weakening of EDF

Consequences for EDF:

• Colossal debt: over €60 billion in 2022
• Under-investment in nuclear fleet maintenance
• Inability to finance new reactors
• Forced nationalization in 2023 to avoid bankruptcy

Who benefits?

The "alternative suppliers" (Engie, TotalEnergies, etc.) who:

• Have never built a nuclear power plant
• Buy EDF electricity at rock-bottom prices
• Resell it at high prices to consumers
• Pocket the margin without risk or investment

📄 Source: Cour des comptes - Organization of electricity markets

Price Explosion for the French

France had the cheapest electricity in Europe. After liberalization, prices aligned with the European average — upward.

📄 Source: Transitions Énergies - Why liberalization is a failure

The Thorium Case: Bill Gates Recovers Our Technologies

TerraPower will file the patents, and we'll pay royalties for our own inventions.

France Pioneer (Again)

CNRS has been working for over 20 years on molten salt reactors (MSR/MSFR) at the LPSC laboratory in Grenoble. This research focuses on the thorium cycle.

TerraPower: American Recovery

In 2006, Bill Gates founded TerraPower. His MCFR (Molten Chloride Fast Reactor) concept is "strangely similar" to that studied by French CNRS.

"France was 40 years ahead on the subject. Today, TerraPower will file the patents, and we'll pay royalties for a technology we invented."

— Transitions Énergies

Timeline of the loss:

• 1997: Jospin closes Superphénix
• 2019: Macron abandons ASTRID
• 2024: TerraPower begins construction of its reactor in the USA
• 2025: China commissions its thorium reactor

📄 Source: Transitions Énergies - 4th generation nuclear reactor

China Surpasses Us

In November 2024, China announced achieving the first thorium-uranium conversion in the world in its TMSR-LF1 reactor:

• Operational reactor since 2023 in Wuwei (Gansu)
• Only molten salt reactor in the world loaded with thorium
• Goal 2035: 100 MW demonstration reactor
• Nuclear propulsion project for container ships

"China has the best thorium nuclear plants in the world. It has just discovered thorium deposits capable of covering SIXTY THOUSAND YEARS of its national consumption."

— Idriss Aberkane, on X

📄 Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences - Thorium-uranium conversion

Act 4: The MARA/Exaion Affair (2025)

EDF forbidden from doing high-performance computing for two years for €20 million net.

EDF Sells Its HPC Subsidiary to Americans

In August 2025, EDF signed an agreement to sell 64% of Exaion, its subsidiary specialized in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI, to American Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings.

The scandalous terms:

The Explosive Clause

The document filed with the US SEC stipulates that EDF commits not to engage in any "computing, cloud, or HPC-related" activity for 24 months.

"You don't sign such an agreement at this price when it concerns sovereignty and strategic electricity. The global high-performance computing market represents billions, and we're blocking it for two years for €20 million net? It's absurd."

— Internal EDF source

📄 Source: The Big Whale - Exclusive on Exaion clause

Éric Ciotti's Alert

At the National Assembly (November 4, 2025), deputy Éric Ciotti challenged the Prime Minister:

"Since its advent, Macronist power has sold off many jewels of our technology and industry: Alstom, Technip, Latecoere are sad examples. Today, EDF is about to follow this dark path by selling Exaion to the American company MARA. This bargain sale would mark an additional abandonment of our energy, digital, and monetary sovereignty."

The Cloud Act risk: A company under American control must provide its data to US authorities on request. Sensitive French data (health, research, administration) would be accessible.

📄 Source: National Assembly - Session of November 4, 2025

Act 5: The Great Sell-Off by Presidents (2007-2024)

Sarkozy, Hollande, Macron: four presidents, 1,600 companies sold abroad.

The Alstom Affair (2014-2015) — The American Trap

It was under Hollande, with Emmanuel Macron as Economy Minister, that the Alstom scandal played out:

Timeline of American manipulation:

Frédéric Pierucci's testimony:

"It was real blackmail to force Alstom to pay a gigantic fine and sell itself to General Electric."

— Frédéric Pierucci, The American Trap (2019)

Pierucci spent 25 months in American prison for corruption charges... while Alstom was negotiating its sale to GE.

📄 Source: France Info - Pierucci affair

What France lost with Alstom:

• The Arabelle turbines: equip 56 French reactors + EPR + aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle
• 5,000 jobs eliminated in 7 years, including 1,200 in Belfort
• Strategic patents passed to American hands
• The promise to create 1,000 jobs: never kept

The Shocking Figure: 1,600 Companies Sold

Since 2012, more than 1,600 French companies have been acquired by foreign investors.

Main acquirers (since 2014):

In 2022 alone, the government authorized the acquisition of 131 sensitive companies by foreign investors.

📄 Source: Le JDD - Sensitive company acquisitions

What Experts Say

Jancovici, Aberkane, Machenaud: all denounce the same organized energy sabotage.

Jean-Marc Jancovici (Polytechnicien, Founder of Shift Project)

"We are favoring the most inefficient means — intermittent and fatal renewables, solar and wind — which is deliberately choosing the path of an increased climate drama."

His figures:

• 100 times more copper for a solar kWh than nuclear
• 50 times more steel for solar
• 1000 times more space: 1000 hectares for 1 GW solar vs 1 hectare for 1 reactor
• €121 billion already committed for wind/solar according to the Court of Auditors

📄 Source: Le JDD - Jancovici interview

Hervé Machenaud (Former EDF Executive Director, COMEX Member)

Who is he?

• Executive Director of EDF in charge of production and engineering (2010-2015)
• Member of Executive Committee (COMEX) of EDF
• Director of EDF Asia-Pacific branch (2002-2016)
• Member of Academy of Technologies since 2010
• 30 years of experience in China on energy programs

His book: "France in the Dark — It's Now!" (2017, reissued 2022)

In this work, this former EDF executive denounces:

"For forty years, finance has taken precedence over industry, ideology over engineering, European deregulation over national planning."

📄 Source: Les Belles Lettres - La France dans le noir

Perspective: Bitcoin as a New Form of Energy Storage

Every bitcoin mined represents crystallized electricity: energy and money, two pillars of sovereignty.

Energy as Store of Value

In this race for energy, a paradox deserves to be highlighted: Bitcoin represents an unprecedented form of energy storage.

The Proof-of-Work principle:

Bitcoin operates on proof of work. Each bitcoin mined represents a quantity of electricity consumed and computing power deployed. In other words:

The value stored in Bitcoin is crystallized energy.

The Unique Characteristics of Bitcoin

Unlike fiat currency:

• The euro can be printed infinitely (quantitative easing, debt)
• Bitcoin has an absolute ceiling of 21 million units
• Impossible to "dilute" value through money creation

The Link With Energy Sovereignty

Why talk about Bitcoin in an article about nuclear?

Because energy and money are the two pillars of sovereignty.

1. A country that doesn't control its energy depends on others
2. A country that doesn't control its currency suffers inflation and markets
3. Bitcoin offers an alternative: a store of value backed by energy, not debt

The French Irony

France, which had the cheapest electricity in Europe thanks to nuclear, could have been a world leader in Bitcoin mining.

Instead:

• EDF sells its HPC subsidiary to Americans
• Miners settle in Texas, Paraguay, China
• France lags behind, handicapped by its energy policy

Timeline of the Decline

From nuclear peak in 1990 to Exaion sale in 2025: 35 years of sabotage.

The Late Revival (2025)

Macron announces a demonstrator for 2038: China will be 30 years ahead.

On March 17, 2025, Emmanuel Macron announced a new program to develop 4th generation reactors. Construction of a demonstrator planned for... 2038, for startup between 2045 and 2050.

In 2050:

• China will have 30 years ahead
• The United States will have 25 years ahead
• France will have lost a complete generation of engineers

Conclusion: Who Is Responsible?

The decline of French nuclear is not an accident. It's the result of political decisions made against national interest:

1. Lionel Jospin (1997): Closes Superphénix to satisfy the Greens
2. European Union (1996-2010): Imposes destructive liberalization
3. Emmanuel Macron (2019): Secretly abandons ASTRID
4. EDF (2025): Sells Exaion to Americans at a bargain

The result:

• More expensive electricity
• Lost sovereignty
• Technologies sold abroad
• Waste not recycled
• Future mortgaged

As Jean-Marc Jancovici summarizes:

"The less nuclear we do, the more we complicate our lives."

To understand the alternative that thorium represents, see our article on Thorium vs Uranium: The Energy of the Future.

Related Articles

• Thorium vs Uranium: The Energy of the Future — How China and the USA exploit our abandoned technologies
• The Wind Greenwashing Scandal — When wind turbines run on diesel
• Blackout 2025: How Europe Nearly Faced Disaster — 60 million people without electricity
• CBDCs vs Bitcoin: The Fight for the Future of Money — Energy and money, the two pillars of sovereignty

Main Sources

• Senate Report on the nuclear energy of the future (2021)
• INSEE - French spending on electricity since 1960
• Wikipedia - History of the French civil nuclear program
• Transitions Énergies - Market liberalization
• The Big Whale - Exclusive Exaion/MARA
• National Assembly - Exaion Debate