The UK, Germany and the Netherlands had respectively oil, coal and gas reserves. France only had uranium reserves in Africa.

Also, de Gaul figured out quickly that without nukes, France would cease to count geopolitically. To build nukes you need a nuclear industry.

> To build nukes you need a nuclear industry.

The corollary being, if you want to reduce the chance of nuclear war, you should phase out civilian nuclear power.

At the very least, we should limit nuclear energy to only countries that are declared nuclear weapon states. If necessary, the ban could apply to only building new nuclear power plants after some agreed date (e.g. 2045), to give some time to improve battery and other energy storage technologies.

Also, the nuclear weapon states should commit to using 10% of their installed capacity on atmospheric carbon capture, as a tax on the privilege of operating that dangerous technology. This would effectively be a carbon dividend for countries that had to forego using nuclear energy.