nuclear-news

Ms Batho, who held the energy and the environment portfolios, was fired by President Francois Hollande after she called his 2014 spending plans ”bad” because they cut her department’s funds by about 7 per cent.

These forces that I am talking about wanted my scalp.

Mr Hollande announced her sacking via Twitter.

But Ms Batho said on Thursday that her support for France’s ban on shale gas drilling and reducing its dependence on nuclear power were the real reasons behind her departure. ”The battle crystallised notably on the question of shale gas and more discreetly on the reduction of nuclear in France,” she said at a news conference at the National Assembly in Paris. ”These forces that I am talking about wanted my scalp.”

She left at a critical time as the nation debates its future energy mix after Mr Hollande pledged to lower the proportion of power France derives from nuclear energy, the highest in the world.

An energy law was to be formulated in coming months and sent to parliament early next year.The stakes are high for Electricite de France SA, operator of the country’s 58 nuclear reactors, because it wants to extend the lives of its generators rather than have any of them shut down.

Socialist Philippe Martin was named to replace Ms Batho……… Mr Hollande has pledged to lower the dependence on nuclear energy to 50 per cent of total output by about 2025 from the present 75 per cent. http://www.smh.com.au/world/sacked-french-minister-lays-blame-on-nuclear-power-fracking-groups-20130705-2phc7.html#ixzz2YIsVQFKn