EDF Gets Six Years to Carry Out $12 Billion of Safety Measures

From news reports: Electricite de France SA, operator of the country’s 58 nuclear reactors, has six years to complete about 10 billion euros ($12 billion) of measures to boost safety after Japan’s Fukushima atomic meltdown, the regulator said.

Autorite de Surete Nucleaire today published deadlines for measures including employing equipment such as diesel generators and bunkered control rooms, and guarding against flooding.

An estimate by state-owned EDF that the measures will cost about 10 billion euros “is not improbable,” Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of the watchdog, told reporters today.

“No one can ever guarantee that a nuclear accident will never happen in France,” he said. “We may need 10 years to completely understand what happened at Fukushima.”

Unfortunately, the approach in France appears to be likely futile (and expensive) efforts to "fix" safety issues rather than move toward a nuclear shutdown like Germany.

Hollande shows his pro-nuclear colors in supporting uranium mine in Niger

Newly-elected French President, François Hollande, has confirmed the forebodings of French anti-nuclear activists by coming out in favor of hastening the start of a new uranium mine in Niger. The mine at Imouraren would be the largest uranium mine in the world. Extraction was due to begin around 2013-2014 with an annual production of anything between 3,000 and 8,000 metric tons of uranium. Hollande was quoted as being favorable to moving up the start of production.