[padre35]

From reading the excerpts, Sarkozy seemed much more staid and calm wereas Royal was all over the place, and refused to give specifics.

So is nuclear power in France just 17% of the total power generated? That seems to me to be a bit too low a figure.

[Cincinna]

France gets about 80% of their power from nuclear.

[chimera]

In the range of 70-80% of electrical generating capacity in France is nuclear. It has provided them with a stable, reliable, economic source of baseload energy. They export some of their excess generation to neighboring countries, which helps their balance of payments.

Royal With Cheese is treading on dangerous ground if she throws her lot in with the anti-nuke kooks. Mitterand toyed with that idea when he was running and the trade unions literally b*tch-slapped him. He never uttered an anti-nuke word for the rest of his career.

[salocin]

There was some embarassement the next day about both of their pronouncements on nuclear energy, with some of the major papers picking up on their mistakes. Le Monde published the following (my translation, so bear with me)...

Both candidates demonstrated certain weaknesses in their knowledge of civil nuclear issues. During a confused exchange on nuclear energy, Segolene Royal accused her adversary of a "series of errors": "That can happen, but you will need to revise this subject matter!". Actually, both candidates showed certain weaknesses in their knowledge of civil nuclear issues. The share of nuclear power in French electricity products is not, in fact, 17%, as claimed by Segolene Royal, who, on Thursday, on France Inter [Radio Station] admitted to "a lapse". But neither is it 50%, as claimed by Mr. Sarkosy.

In fact, the number is 78% - you can find the information on Bloomberg over here.