French nuclear energy operator, EDF, caught spying on nuclear opponents

The French nuclear energy operator, Électricité de France, has been caught infiltrating and conducting surveillance on members of anti-nuclear organizations in France and potentially elsewhere in Europe, it was revealed this week. The network, Sortir du Nucléaire - of which Beyond Nuclear is a member - along with Greenpeace, were two of the organizations indentified as targets of spying by EDF security contractors, according to court papers made available to the Financial Times. The surveillance - which may also have included illegal hacking of computers belonging to anti-nuclear activists - points up the inherent incompatibility between the nuclear energy industry and democracy and also reinforces the fact that the French nuclear sector is highly secretive. The targeting of Sortir du Nucléaire - and in particular its spokesman, Stéphane Lhomme - came after a still unknown EDF source leaked confidential documents to the network showing that the French EPR reactor (seven of which are slated for sites in the U.S.) - cannot withstand a jet airliner attack. EDF, in partnership with Constellation Energy (and under the coporate mantel of UniStar Nuclear Energy) is aiming to build and operate new EPR reactors at sites in Maryland, Missouri, New York and Pennsylvania.

Sarkozy and Areva ink deals in DR Congo and Niger

French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Areva CEO, Anne Lauvergeon, have returned from their African tour after inking uranium mining deals in Niger - where the Touareg are threatened with elimination - and in war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo where three million people have already died due to fighting over the country's mineral wealth. The Congo war has been described as "Africa's world war" and in a "humanitarian crisis" yet Areva has claimed the exclusive right to further plunder the country by mining uranium there. The Imouraren mine in Niger, which is expected to produce 5,000 tonnes of uranium a year - mainly to fuel France's import-dependent nuclear reactors - will force out the already threatened nomadic Touareg population. Scarce water supplies in the Sahara region will be further decimated by the new mine, compounded by the Niger government's decision to award dozens of additional uranium prospecting contracts to international mining corporations.