Producer
Electricite de France S.A. (EDF)
Electricite de France S.A. (EDF; Paris; state-owned after full re-nationalization April 2023; ~€139B revenue) is Europe's largest electricity generator and France's dominant utility, operating 56 nuclear reactors across 18 power stations totaling ~61 GW of nuclear capacity — the world's largest nuclear fleet outside China. EDF supplies approximately 70-75% of France's electricity from nuclear generation, giving French industry the lowest industrial electricity prices in continental Western Europe (historically ~€50-80/MWh industrial vs. ~€100-150/MWh for German gas-dependent industry). EDF also operates hydropower assets, offshore wind, and international generation. The ARENH (Accès Régulé à l'Electricité Nucléaire Historique) system historically required EDF to sell regulated nuclear output to competitors at €42/MWh, cross-subsidizing French industrial competitiveness. EDF's 58 reactor fleet (as of 2022) was plagued by unprecedented simultaneous outages due to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) discovered in cooling circuit welds — at the 2022 trough, only ~24 of 56 reactors were operational, reducing French nuclear output by nearly 50% and contributing to the 2021-2022 European energy crisis.
2
Inputs supplied
2
Goods downstream
2
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
2 inputs Electricite de France S.A. (EDF) supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something Electricite de France S.A. (EDF) makes — pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
2 facilities
EDF Nuclear Fleet — France (56 Reactors, 18 Sites) →
FRMultiple regions — Loire Valley, Rhone Valley, English Channel coast · power-generation
EDF operates 56 nuclear reactors across 18 sites in France totaling ~61 GW — the world's largest nuclear fleet outside China. Key industrial-supply sites: Bugey (Ain), Tricastin (Drome — adjacent to Orano enrichment plant and Framatome fuel fab), Gravelines (Nord — Europe's largest nuclear plant at 5.4 GW, 6 reactors). In 2022, SCC (stress corrosion cracking) caused simultaneous outage of up to 32 of 56 reactors. Source: https://www.edf.fr/groupe-edf/nos-energies/carte-de-nos-implantations-dans-le-monde/le-parc-nucleaire-en-france
EDF — Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant, Moselle, France →
FRGrand Est (Moselle)
EDF Cattenom (Moselle; 4 × 1,300 MW PWR units; 5,200 MW total — among Europe's largest nuclear stations) powers industrial consumers in northeast France and exports via interconnections to Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium. French nuclear baseload electricity (averaging ~EUR 42/MWh under the historic ARENH regulated nuclear access tariff) supports France's aluminum smelting (Aluminium Dunkerque: 260,000 t/yr) and chlor-alkali industry. In 2022, corrosion inspection shutdowns at French reactors including units at Cattenom reduced French nuclear output by ~80 TWh — contributing to the European energy price spike that curtailed European aluminum and chlor-alkali production.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map — where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Nuclear Generation (France)
60%Renewables & Hydro
18%Retail & Distribution (France)
12%International Operations
10%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains — chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Incident2022
In January 2022, EDF discovered Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) in safety injection circuit welds at the Civaux nuclear plant (Vienne, France). The engineering flaw — caused by high-cycle thermal fatigue at mixing tees where cooler safety-injection water meets hotter primary circuit water — was subsequently found to affect multiple reactor models. By September 2022, at the trough of the crisis, 32 of EDF's 56 reactors were offline for SCC inspection and repair. French nuclear output in 2022 fell to ~279 TWh — its lowest since the 1980s (vs. ~379 TWh in 2021). France, historically a major electricity exporter, became a net importer for the first time since records began. EDF's emergency had compounding effects: France could not backstop Germany (which was simultaneously losing Russian gas) through usual France-Germany electricity flows, contributing to the 2022 European-wide price spike. Total cost to EDF: ~€12.7 billion in impairments and revenue loss in 2022. The French government's response: full re-nationalization of EDF (completed April 2023) at a cost of ~€9.7 billion — the state bought out the remaining minority shareholders to take full control as a strategic asset.
World Nuclear News ↗Did you know2024
EDF's civilian nuclear program and France's military nuclear deterrent (force de frappe) share overlapping industrial ecosystems: uranium enrichment (via Orano's Georges Besse II centrifuge plant at Tricastin), reactor physics expertise (CEA, Commissariat à l'énergie atomique), and spent fuel reprocessing (La Hague). The same CEA engineers and Framatome technicians who design EDF's civilian EPR reactors work within an institutional complex that also maintains France's submarine nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons program. EDF's electricity supply chain and France's strategic deterrent are not separately administered — they share engineering talent, safety culture, research facilities, and industrial contractors. A disruption to EDF's civilian nuclear capacity affects both French electricity supply and the human capital base that maintains France's nuclear weapons program.
Commissariat a l'energie atomique (CEA) ↗Origin2023
EDF was nationalized in 1946 by Charles de Gaulle's government as part of post-WWII reconstruction, consolidating all private French electricity companies into a state enterprise serving "service public" (public service). After the 1973 OPEC oil shock devastated France (which had minimal domestic oil and gas), President Giscard d'Estaing launched the "Messmer Plan" in 1974 — one of the most ambitious industrial programs in modern history — committing France to build 56 nuclear reactors within 25 years. France went from ~8% nuclear electricity in 1973 to ~70%+ by the 1990s, creating the world's most nuclear-dependent civilian power grid and making EDF the world's largest nuclear operator.
EDF Group ↗