PARIS, France, June 25, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - France's main energy provider 
Thursday shut down two nuclear reactors as an environmental protection 
measure to avoid discharging too much hot water into rivers already warming 
in a record-breaking heatwave.

Power plants critical to the country's electricity production use river water 
to cool their reactors, which heats the water that is then released back into 
the river.

The EDF energy group on Thursday said it had temporarily shut down two 
reactors to comply with temperature limits of the rivers at the Nogent-sur-
Seine power plant on the Seine river in northern France, and in Bugey on the 
Rhone near the southeastern city on Lyon.

The Nogent-sur-Seine plant had already reduced production in another reactor 
days earlier "to limit the temperature increase between the water withdrawn 
from the Seine and the water discharged back into it, thereby protecting 
aquatic plant and animal life".

Production halts and reductions at France's 57 reactors are intended to meet 
environmental obligations designed to protect plant and animal life in the 
waterways used to cool nuclear facilities.

During heatwaves, rising river temperatures can force EDF to reduce or even 
cut production so as not to warm them further with discharges of cooling 
water, which is anywhere from a few tenths of a degree to several degrees 
warmer, depending on the site.

France has been hit hard by a deadly record-breaking heatwave sweeping 
Europe.

EDF had already shut down a reactor at the Golfech plant in southwestern 
France on the Garonne river on Monday and has reduced output at other sites.

Nuclear power stations produced almost 70 percent of France's electricity 
last year.

French grid operator RTE told AFP on Wednesday that "France has sufficient 
generation capacity to meet electricity demand, including in the event of 
outages at certain production facilities".