30 arrested after break-in to France’s Tricastin nuclear power plant

Greenpeace members arrested after France nuclear break-in CBC News 16 July 13, Intrusion raises questions about the security of France’s 19 nuclear power plants  Around 30 Greenpeace activists were arrested on Monday after breaking into an EDF nuclear power plant in southern France, saying they wanted to expose security flaws and demanding its closure…… The action echoed tensions between the Socialist government and ecologists, who accuse Hollande of not doing enough to reduce France’s reliance on nuclear power and increase the use of renewable sources of energy.Greenpeace activists occupied this French nuclear power plant site before dawn Monday, a media stunt deeply embarrassing to a government intent on demonstrating that France’s reliance on nuclear power is safe. (Micha Patault/Greenpeace/AP)

Hollande sacked his energy and environment minister for publicly criticizing cuts to her budget earlier this month.

The president has pledged to cut the share of nuclear energy in the country’s electricity mix to 50 per cent from 75 per cent by 2025. He has also said he wants to close the country’s oldest plant at Fessenheim, near the German border, by 2017.

Greenpeace said to honour his promise, Hollande would have to close at least 10 reactors by 2017 and 20 by 2020. The campaign group said this ought to include Tricastin, which was built more than 30 years ago.

The dawn raid came less than a week after six female Greenpeace activists climbed London’s Shard, the tallest building in Western Europe, in protest over plans by oil producer Royal Dutch Shell to carry out drilling in the Arctic circle.http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/07/15/france-greenpeace-nuclear-plant.html

July 16, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, opposition to nuclear