France's state-owned utility, EDF, may need to spend €100 billion ($112 billion) upgrading its 58 nuclear plants by 2030 to meet new safety rules, the country's state audit office says. The upgrades are required to extend the units' lives beyond 40 years.

The office says, however, that implementation of France's energy transition law—which calls for reducing the country's reliance on nuclear energy to 50 percent of power generation by 2025—is likely to challenge the planned investments and “force the company to close a third of its reactors."

EDF must spend €100 billion upgrading 58 nuclear plants to meet new safety requirements. Image credit: Pixabay. This, it says, will have "important consequences in terms of jobs" that could result in compensation by the state. "Only a very significant increase in electricity consumption or exports of power could limit the number of shutdowns, but experts are not forecasting this to happen," the court says.

French power reactors were originally licensed to operate for 30 years, but are now subject to 10-year reviews.