PARIS — Although France has avoided most of the global anti-nuclear backlash prompted by the Fukushima reactor crisis, there is a serious, if quiet, reassessing of the risks here in a country that obtains nearly 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power.

Even though there is little talk about shifting away from the industry, comments this week by top French officials made it clear that there would be changes here that were likely to have an effect on the worldwide reckoning with nuclear power, given France’s long history with the industry.

The head of France’s Nuclear Safety Authority, André-Claude Lacoste, made some of that process public on Wednesday when he told members of Parliament that the country would draw the necessary lessons from the Japanese experience and upgrade safety procedures. The most urgent task — and one that Mr. Lacoste acknowledged had been neglected — is a re-evaluation of the potential effects of natural disasters on nuclear safety.

“Nobody can guarantee that there will never be a nuclear accident in France,” he warned.

President Nicolas Sarkozy underscored the point on Thursday, when he traveled to Japan and called for new nuclear safety guidelines for all countries in the Group of 20, over which he currently presides.