nuclear-news

With nuclear power plans, France gets control of UK energy policy

UK nuclear plans ‘put energy in French hands’, BBC News, 13 March 12, By Richard Black, BBC News Government plans for nuclear power risk handing control of the UK’s climate and energy policies to France, according to four senior environmentalists,

Energy giant EDF and reactor builder Areva, big players in the UK’s plans, are largely French government-owned.

Jonathan Porritt, Tom Burke, Charles Secrett and Tony Juniper say the
firms are landing UK citizens with all the financial risks of nuclear
new build.

They have told Prime Minister David Cameron he is being badly advised.

The four – all former directors of Friends of the Earth (FoE) UK – say
that the current policy to start building at least eight new reactors
over the next decade cannot withstand the “intense scrutiny” it is
coming under in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

“There is now a growing risk of policy failure,” they write in their
letter to the prime minister.

Mr Cameron recently signed an agreement with French President Nicolas
Sarkozy to boost nuclear co-operation. “Our analysis shows that
building new nukes will be a massive rip-off for the the British
taxpayer,” said Mr Secrett.

“How on Earth can the prime minister justify paying billions of pounds
of subsidy to French power companies when the chancellor is slashing
welfare budgets for poor people in Britain and there are a million
young people unemployed?”…..
The four FoE ex-directors say that with the government relying on EDF
to commission and operate the new power stations and on Areva to build
reactors, the French firms are in a position to bargain hard and
secure themselves a highly advantageous financial package – which will
result in higher electricity prices for the UK consumer.

Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy signed a pact on nuclear co-operation only last month
And they say that as the French government has a large stake in both
companies, it will be able to determine whether the UK nuclear build
goes ahead.

“The French will only proceed if the large financial risks of new
nuclear build are transferred from France to British households and
business,” they tell Mr Cameron.

Even then, they say, “there is no reason to believe that Areva will be
able to construct new reactors on time and to budget”.

The two modern Areva EPR reactors under construction in Europe, at
Flamanville in France and Olkiluoto in Finland, are both several years
behind schedule and substantially over budget…..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17344263

March 14, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, politics international, UK