Fact check: The average full outage time of nuclear reactors in France in 2023 was 126.8 days.

1. Summary of the results

The specific claim that the average full outage time was 126.8 days cannot be directly verified from the provided sources. However, we do know that France experienced 7,103 reactor-days of nuclear reactor unavailability in 2023 ^{[1] [1]}. This was actually an improvement from 2022, which saw over 8,500 reactor-days of unavailability ^[1].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

Several important contextual points are missing from the original statement:

• The nuclear fleet's performance in 2023 should be viewed in the context of 2022's historical low availability, when 28 out of 56 reactors were offline by April, leading to the lowest electricity production since 1993 ^[2]
• While reactor unavailability remained high, there was actually a 15% increase in nuclear output in 2023, though still 70.1 TWh lower than the 2015-19 average ^[3]
• Maintenance challenges are significantly impacting reactor availability:

Safety upgrades are taking an average of **71 additional days** beyond initial estimates ^[3]

Technical issues include stress corrosion cracking and other maintenance problems ^{[1] [1]}

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original statement presents a precise figure (126.8 days) without important context:

• It oversimplifies a complex situation by presenting a single average number without acknowledging the varying nature of outages and their causes
• The statement fails to mention that 2023 actually showed improvement from 2022, which could create a more negative impression than warranted ^[1]
• Various stakeholders might benefit from different interpretations of this data:

Anti-nuclear groups might emphasize outage times to argue against nuclear power

Nuclear industry proponents might focus on the improvement from 2022 and the 15% output increase

• Energy competitors might use these figures to promote alternative power sources