Industry regulators have shut down 20 French nuclear reactors, causing power prices to spike across Europe.
The reactors were shut down due to a scandal about sub-standard parts. Investigators discovered in 2014 that a reactor in northern France falsified quality control reports about parts. The crisis is terrifying environmentalists, and has caused France to reopen mothballed coal plants for the first time in 32 years.
France’s production of nuclear power has been steadily falling since May, according to Reuters, largely due to a law passed by the French government last November intended to prop up solar power. The law requires the country to reduce its share of nuclear energy production from 75 percent to only 50 percent by 2025. – READ MORE
