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.

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.

Even France to prioritize renewable over nuclear energy

French ecology minister, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, has announced plans for France to step up its investments in renewable energy, throwing into doubt future nuclear power expansion in the country. France gets 80% of its electricity from its 58 reactors. "Our objective is to rebalance the energy mix in favour of renewables,” Kosciusko-Morizet told the Financial Times.  Regarding the future of nuclear, she told the FT: "We are investing in [nuclear] safety, not in growth objectives as we are doing in renewables." France is launching a bid for five new offshore wind farms.

Sign the petition for a referendum on nuclear in France

They did it in Italy; now it has to happen in France. A staggering 95% of Italians voting in their June referendum supported a permanent ban on nuclear power in Italy. Please sign the French petition to demand a similar referendum in France.

Areva of France takes full advantage of Fukushima nuclear catastrophe

In an article entitled "French nuclear power lobbyists used Fukushima smear campaign to promote own business," the Mainichi Daily News reports that the French nuclear establishment was playing a double game in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. While French President Nicolas Sarkozy and even CEO of Areva Anne Lauvergeon were in Tokyo offering their full support to the Japanese prime minister and Japanese federal government, Areva lobbyists were busily handing out booklets to U.S. Congress Members portraying the catastrophe as peculiar to Japan, and impossible with Areva reactors. The Areva sales team was so forceful in its sales pitch that it even convinced Tokyo Electric Power Company to choose it to provide the water decontamination system at Fukushima Daiichi -- which has failed repeatedly in the past few weeks. The article also reports that Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric's Chairman and CEO as well as President Obama's job creation czar, dodged meetings with Japanese federal government officials and questions from reporters for fear of being held liable for the catastrophe involving four GE Boiling Water Reactors of the Mark 1 design.