France recorded its hottest day since 1947 on June 23, hitting 44 degrees Celsius. The Golfech nuclear reactor shut down at 11:45 p.m. the night before when the Garonne River exceeded 28 degrees Celsius, breaching the legal temperature limit for cooling water discharge. EDF is also scaling back output at Nogent-sur-Seine and other sites across France's nuclear fleet.
Nuclear is not the only system failing. European hydropower dropped 13% in the first five months of 2025 due to low water conditions. Five UK gas plants shed 2.5 gigawatts of capacity during the current heat wave. Demand is climbing at the same time: UK air-conditioning adoption has doubled since 2022, and the IEA projects global cooling energy use will double by 2050 relative to 2023 levels.
The cost of adapting is not abstract. EDF published a climate vulnerability assessment projecting 600 million euros, roughly 680 million dollars, per year in climate-proofing costs over the next 15 years, covering nuclear and hydropower operations in France alone. The full article is worth reading for Bruegel senior fellow Simone Tagliapietra's breakdown of what utilities must actually do, and for the July 2025 precedent where France lost seven gigawatts of nuclear capacity during a single heat wave, more than Ireland's entire grid.
[READ ORIGINAL →]