Re debt: check how much debt the SV giants have. Debt isn't a bad thing per se, it's just how you finance investments.

Its has always been state owned, and it's much better for critical infrastructures to be so anyway.

> suffering from aged power plants having issues?

There was one (1) instance if of a serious common issue between multiple plants found in 2022, unrelated to the age of the NPPs (the most recent were affected as well) which affected the exploitation for about a year. It was bad for a moment, but not that bad, it's like saying the automobile industry can't be profitable because the Tataka airbag problem happened. (And the corrosion issue was much less severe than the Tataka one!).

Because it isn't. EDF devt to EBITDA ratio is as healthy or healthier vs german eon/rwe. Debt is ok to have for big corpos, unless you think Apple is a failed company.

Over half of french fleet was already upgraded to have safety similar to gen3 reactors through great carenage.

France also set record production this summer vs prev ones

Because being a cash cow does not mean the cash will be reinvested by the owner. The owner might just milk the cow and use the money for other things.

Couldn’t be because nuclear-hating bureaucrats have over regulated the industry?