France is the EU country most reliant on nuclear energy, with close to two thirds (62.8%) of the country’s electricity derived from nuclear in 2022, new data has shown.
In addition, France produced almost half of the EU’s total nuclear electricity in 2022, (48.4%; 294 731 GWh), followed by Spain (9.6%; 58 590 GWh), Sweden (8.5%; 51 944 GWh) and Belgium (7.2%; 43 879 GWh), the Eurostat data showed.
These four countries together produced 73.7% of the total amount of electricity from nuclear sources in the EU.
According to Eurostat, the only other EU country that generates more than half of its electricity from nuclear power is Slovakia, with 60.2% of the country’s energy derived from nuclear in 2022.
Collective nuclear energy output
Taking the 13 countries that are engaged in nuclear energy production as a whole, these countries collectively generated 609,255 gigawatt hours (GWh) of nuclear electricity in 2022, a decrease of 16.7% compared to the previous year.
This is the lowest level since 1990, which was the first year that comparable data was available across all EU member states.
Despite this decline, nuclear power plants contributed significantly to the overall electricity production in the EU, constituting 21.8% of the total output.
Decline in production
The decline in nuclear electricity production can be primarily attributed to maintenance and repair activities in France – specifically, in 2022, French nuclear power plants generated 84,630 gigawatt hours (GWh) less electricity, marking a 22% decrease compared to 2021.
Furthermore, Germany permanently closed three of its reactors on the last day of 2021, resulting in a 50% reduction in nuclear power production—from 69,130 GWh in 2021 to 34,709 GWh in 2022. In September 2022, Belgium also shut down one reactor.
Taking into account these closures and the commissioning of a new reactor in Finland, the EU ended 2022 with 103 operational nuclear reactors, down from 106 at the end of 2021, Eurostat said.
EU members Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria, Poland and Portugal do not currently produce nuclear power.
