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France is the world’s second biggest producer of nuclear electric energy in volume, after the United States, and the first in terms of production per capita. This singular position stems from the country's geological characteristics and from the key role played by French researchers in the discovery of the atom and the understanding of fission mechanisms in the early 20th century. When the oil crisis erupted in 1973, France found itself with no independent access to fossil energy sources, unlike the United States, which had coal, oil and gas, Germany with its coal mines, or the United Kingdom, which had oil and gas from the North Sea. The geographical and political diversity of the world’s uranium sources, combined with easy storage of nuclear fuel on French territory, seemed then —,and may still seem today — to be strong advantages for achieving energy independence in a country with no other resources.

France’s nuclear program, both civil and military, was initiated immediately after World War II. The country’s Atomic Energy Commission was founded in 1945, marking the birth of the French nuclear industry. In 1958, the newly-elected president Charles De Gaulle decided that the country needed to control the entire nuclear cycle. Later, in 1972, president Georges Pompidou gave the go-ahead for the construction of the Pierrelatte uranium enrichment plant at the Tricastin site. It was launched in 1979 and remained operational for 33 years. This plant is now being dismantled. It will be replaced by the Georges Besse II centrifuge separation unit, which will fulfill the same function while also producing as much electricity as two nuclear plants, thanks to its lower energy consumption.

In the 1950s, EDF began operating six natural uranium-graphite-gas reactors, also known as UNGG reactors. This network was gradually phased out from the late 1960s, to be replaced by pressurized water technology, which is still in use today and requires enrichment of natural uranium. France continued to expand its electronuclear infrastructure up until the mid-1990s, eventually reaching the size of 58 reactors across 19 sites.

Now under construction in Flamanville, the EPR (or European Pressurized Reactor) is designed according to the same principles as the reactors currently in operation, but with reinforced safety mechanisms. In 2012, nine reactors were being dismantled in France, including the six of the UNGG network, the first reactor at the Brennilis plant and the two PHENIX and SUPERPHENIX breeder reactors. Their dismantling involves the demolition, processing, evacuation and storage of all the components, including the reactors themselves. The cost of dismantling all 58 reactors now in operation in France has been estimated at €18 billion. This figure is by no means certain, and the actual cost could be two or three times as much. However, a report by the French public audit authority (or Cour des Comptes) in January 2012 indicated that this margin of error has relatively little impact on the cost of nuclear power, amounting to only a few euros per MWh.
The comparison between these production costs and those of other energy sources is often a key point of contention between the pro- and anti-nuclear factions.

Nuclear fuel is another important matter. Besides the fact that France's uranium mines are no longer in operation, the uranium cycle itself is a sensitive issue, even though it is relatively well managed by today’s enrichment and reprocessing plants. The various processes, from the extraction of uranium ore to the reprocessing of spent fuel, are often presented as the stages of a closed cycle, suggesting that uranium, except for the disposal of its final waste, is a renewable fuel. This is both true and false! While the uranium contained in spent fuel can indeed be re-used in a reactor if it is properly re-enriched, this is not possible in France, as the country does not yet have a re-enrichment plant. In addition, the plutonium in spent nuclear fuel can only be recycled once into MOX fuel for pressurized water reactors. A genuine closed cycle, with the multi-recycling of plutonium, is technically possible and could be achieved with fast breeder reactors, as has been demonstrated in the past in plants like PHENIX.

Concerning the storage of long-lived radioactive waste, which accounts for about 3.8% of the volume of all nuclear waste, solutions vary from one country to another. France has opted for storage in deep underground repositories as its system of reference, which is now being tested at the Bure laboratory in the northeastern part of the country. This choice will be the subject of a public debate in 2013. The French nuclear power system is managed by a number of entities in charge of research, plant construction and operation, fuel recycling, the safety of installations, radiological protection, and human and environmental safety, in compliance with both European and international standards.