2022 was the year in which nuclear power generation was at its lowest level since 1990, the first year in which comparable data is available for all EU countries, Eurostat reported on Friday 12 January.
Thirteen EU countries producing nuclear electricity generated 609,255 gigawatt hours (GWh) of nuclear electricity, -16.7% compared to 2021.
This fall is largely due to the need for maintenance and repairs on reactors in France. In addition, Germany has permanently shut down three of its reactors on the last day of 2021, halving its nuclear electricity production. Finally, a reactor has also been shut down in Belgium in September 2022.
With 294,731 GWh, France produced almost half (48.4%) of the EU’s total nuclear energy, followed by Spain (9.6%), Sweden (8.5%) and Belgium (7.2%). These four countries therefore produced 73.7% of all nuclear-generated electricity in the EU.
France is also the most nuclear-dependent country in the EU, with 62.8% of all electricity generated in the country in 2022. Slovakia is the only other country where more than half of the electricity is produced in nuclear power stations. The Netherlands and Germany come last, with 3.4% and 6% respectively of their electricity coming from nuclear power.
To see the Eurostat publication: https://aeur.eu/f/adz (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)