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France

France gets nearly 80% of its electricity from its 58 reactors. However, such a heavy reliance on nuclear power brings with it many major, unsolved problems, most especially that of radioactive waste. Despite assertions to the contrary, the French nuclear story is far from a gleaming example of nuclear success. Please visit Beyond Nuclear International for current coverage of nuclear France.

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Entries by admin (87)

Friday
Nov182011

French "red green" alliance advocates near 50% nuclear shutdown by 2050

The two French opposition parties - the Socialists and the Greens - have agreed to campaign for the shutdown of 24 of France's 58 nuclear reactors by 2025 and the immediate halt of the oldest plant at Fessenheim. The Greens favor a complete halt of France’s nuclear reactors, which provide more than three quarters of the country’s power, while Socialist candidate Francois Hollande has called for the lowering of France’s dependence on atomic power to 50 percent by 2025. The announcement caused stocks of the French utility, EDF, to slide as much as 6.4 percent to 19.40 euros, the lowest since Sept. 26 making it the worst-performing stock in Europe’s Stoxx 600 Utilities Index on November16.

Friday
Nov112011

EDF fined millions and its senior staff sentenced to years in prison for spying on Greenpeace France

Greenpeace International has blogged about the larger implications of a French court's conviction of Electricite de France (EDF) and two its senior staff for "complicity in computer piracy": hiring a private investigator to hack into Greenpeace computers and steal 1,400 documents. The court has fined EDF 1.5 million Euros ($2 million), ordered it to pay 500,000 Euros ($682,000) in damages to Greenpeace France, and an additional 50,000 Euros ($68,200) to the Greenpeace campaigner whose computer was hacked and confidential documents stolen. The court has sentenced two senior EDF officials, and two officials at the private investigation company, to 2-3 years of jail time each, as well as fining three of them thousands of Euros each. World Nuclear News has reported on this story.

Saturday
Sep172011

Deadly explosion at French radioactive waste incineration and "recycling" facility

News is coming in about an explosion at Marcoule, a nuclear processing plant in southern France. One worker has died and four have been injured according to official reports. The explosion appears to have occurred in a furnace at Marcoule in a radioactive waste treatment plant at the Centraco center which is owned by Socodei, a subsidiary of EDF. Beyond Nuclear is following developments. Officials claim there has been no release of radioactivity although reports say there is a possibility for releases. Given "official" statements during the French Tricastin accident and, of course, Fukushima, Beyond Nuclear is conferring with colleagues in France to learn more and break through any opacity. Marcoule processes radioactive waste. It is also the site of a MOX (mixed oxide plutonium-uranium) fuel manufacturing facility - MELOX.

Thursday
Jul282011

French EPR even more behind while costs double

New records set for Flamanville: Wednesday, 20 July, EDF announced that the reactor would only come into service in 2016 (instead of 2014), and the cost of construction will now be €6 billion, double the price originally announced. To justify this additional cost, EDF argues that this reactor is the first model of its kind. They seem to have conveniently forgotten that Flamanville 3 was preceded by the EPR at Olkiluoto in Finland, which also combines 3 ½ years behind schedule and whose costs have jumped to €5.7 billion, at the expense of the French taxpayer.

Friday
Jul222011

French customs officials seize radioactive Japanese tea at border

The Voice of Russia reports that the first radioactive foodstuffs from Japan -- tea, exceeding "permissible" standards two-fold -- to be detected by French customs officials has been seized at the border and will be "destroyed" (radioactivity cannot be "destroyed" -- it will likely be dumped somewhere). The radioactively contaminated tea is reportedly from Shizuoka Prefecture, around 100 miles southwest of Tokyo, which is itself 150 miles southwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This shows that the nuclear catastrophe's hazardous radioactive fallout has travelled far from the three melted down reactor cores and boiling high-level radioactive waste storage pools.

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