ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses primarily on the role that electricity can play in helping to achieve an appropriate energy balance in France. It argues that the nuclear fuel cycle and safety problems will continue to be satisfactorily resolved, and that they will not impose severe constraints on the growth of otherwise economically justified nuclear energy. The economic advantage of nuclear electricity as a base load is quite clear in the French situation. Foreign exchange considerations further reinforce the economic advantages of nuclear as a least-cost means of meeting the electric load, since its foreign exchange component is below that of coal and oil. Electricity may also have a decided advantage from the point of view of reliability of primary energy supply in those countries which must rely one imported energy due to a lack of indigenous resources. Nuclear energy would be the main source which would be mobilized to meet additional electricity consumption.
