Why France Insisted on Nuclear Independence France's journey towards its own nuclear weapon took some twists and turns. Here's What You Need to Remember: By the 1980s France possessed both a vibrant civil nuclear power industry but also robust nuclear military might. Once Europe had trembled under the tramp of French boots; twice Paris had fallen to a foe; three times France had succumbed to invasion. Before the World War II France, like Britain and Germany, led the way in nuclear science, building on the Curie family’s work. Frederic Joliot-Curie set up the first cyclotron or particle accelerator in Europe and with Lew Kowarski succeeded in creating a fission reaction in uranium early in 1939, soon after the discovery of the phenomenon.