French nuclear power generation fell 7.6% in Oct. -EDF

PARIS, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Nuclear electricity generation from French reactors operated by utility EDF fell 7.6% year-on-year in October to 29.2 terawatt hours (TWh) on the back of increased reactor outages, the company said on Tuesday.

EDF said total output since the start of the year stood at 317.3 TWh, down 1.3% compared with the same period a year ago.

The state-controlled utility cut its 2019 nuclear output target in France by 1.2 percentage points to 390 TWh on Oct. 25, citing prolonged maintenance outages, but left its financial target unchanged.

EDF operates all of France's 58 nuclear reactors, which cover around 75 percent of the country's electricity needs.

Earlier on Tuesday, the company extended outages at three of its reactors at the Cruas nuclear plant by three days until Nov. 15 to carry out further safety checks following a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in southeastern France that forced it to temporarily halt production on Monday.

Nuclear power generation at EDF-operated reactors in Britain rose 14.3% year-on-year in October to 4.8 TWh. The company did not give reasons for the output increase in Britain. Since the start of the year, EDF nuclear output in Britain is down 16.9% at 41.6 TWh compared with same period in 2018. (Reporting by Bate Felix; editing by Jonathan Oatis)