Something people forget is that France went all in on nuclear also to produce enough weapons grade plutonium for its independent atomic bomb program. Plutonium production was considered a feature rather than a bug of the reactor program.
Like all nuclear powers, military use preceded civilian use in France.
In addition, the military actually pushed for a French-made dual-use reactor design for the civilian program, but instead a purely civilian Westinghouse design was chosen.
The civilian nuclear program started in earnest in 1974 with the Messmer plan, and that was based on the purely civilian Westinghouse reactors I mentioned.