French Polynesians: almost impossible to get nuclear compensation

Nuclear payments blow to French Polynesia ABC News By Geraldine Coutts for Radio Australia Oct 15, 2009 Activists fighting for victims of French nuclear testing in the Pacific are stunned by conditions imposed in a compensation bill by France’s upper house. Continue reading →

October 20, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, France, politics | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radioactive | Leave a comment

Work stops with safety fears at French nuclear plant

Watchdog suspends work at French plutonium plant

PARIS, Oct 15 (Reuters) – The French nuclear safety watchdog ASN has suspended work dismantling a plutonium technology plant over worker safety fears, after almost three times as much plutonium was found at the site than expected. Continue reading →

October 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, safety | antinuclear, France, nuclear, radioactive | Leave a comment

France making it hard for Polynesian nuclear victims

Nuclear payments blow to French Polynesia

By Geraldine Coutts for Radio Australia

ABC News Oct 15, 2009

Activists fighting for victims of French nuclear testing in the Pacific are stunned by conditions imposed in a compensation bill by France’s upper house………….Roland Oldham, president of the Mororua e Tatou Association representing French Pacific nuclear test workers, told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat the actions of the French Senate reflected arrogance in metropolitan France towards its territories. Continue reading →

October 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, indigenous issues, OCEANIA | antinuclear, cancer, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, wastes | Leave a comment

EDF and AREVA send “really dirty” radioactive stuff to Siberia

EDF ‘sends used nuclear material’ to Siberia EDF, the French firm which owns eight of Britain’s nuclear power stations has shipped hundreds of tons of used radioactive material to Russia.

Telegraph.co.uk By Henry Samuel in Paris
13 Oct 2009 Continue reading →

October 14, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, France, secrets,lies and civil liberties, wastes | antinuclear, AREVA, EDF, France, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, wastes | Leave a comment

Deception surrounds nuclear waste shipments to Russia

Recycling Atomic WasteNuclear Materials Stored In Siberian Carparks SPIEGEL ONLINE 13 Oct 09 The largest utility company in Europe, Électricité de France, has been accused of storing nuclear waste in an open air car park in Siberia. Continue reading →

How AREVA and EDF of France sell the nuclear industry

The many financial failure tsunamis of nuclear power Ace Hoffmann October 7th, 2009 “………No country has ever “solved” its nuclear waste problem. France grinds stuff up, releases much of it directly into the North Sea, and stores the rest with no idea of what to do with it. Continue reading →

October 10, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, France, secrets,lies and civil liberties | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive, wastes | Leave a comment

France’s nuclear industry not safe or clean

European Expert: U.S. Policymakers Are “As Wrong As They Can Be” About the French Experience With Nuclear Power
The Alliance 27 Sept 09 “…………French nuclear power is not “safer” … and the nation does not have a long term solution to waste storage. Continue reading →

September 28, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, France, wastes | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, reprocessing, uranium, wastes | Leave a comment

French authorities try to silence anti-nuclear protest

Beyond Nuclear, Linda Gunter 25 Sept 09 With 10,000 people or more already expected to gather in the French border town of Colmar for an anti-nuclear rally on October 3, local authorities are attempting to renege on their agreement to allow the demonstration.

The rally, which will call for the phase-out of the nearby 30-year old Fessenheim reactor, the oldest in France, coincides with an expected decision to extend the reactor license for another 10 years. But now the prefect of Upper Rhine and the mayor of Colmar, both nuclear power advocates, are trying to move the rally out of the town center and away from the media spotlight.

Raising the specter of “German rioters”, news reports claim the authorities are preparing tear gas-armed police to disperse the rally. Beyond Nuclear joined many others in writing to the two officials, pointing out that their decision further confirms that the French nuclear system and democracy are incompatible.

September 25, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, politics | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

France’s failing atomic energy industry

Tom Friedman’s Idiocy Atomique
COUNTER PUNCH By HARVEY WASSERMAN 23 Sept 09 France’s atomic power industry is a failed radioactive flame. Its 58 reactors are unpopular, unsafe, uneconomical, dirty, direct agents of global warming, weapons proliferators and major generators of atomic waste for which there is no management solution. Continue reading →

September 23, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, business and costs, France | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, radioactive, wastes | Leave a comment

France’s nuclear waste disposal methods – costly and unsafe

No easy way to dispose of nuclear waste
TheDay.comBy Los Angeles Times 9/21/2009 By Frank Von HippelThe Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project is now comatose, if not dead. And that puts us back at square one on a crucial question: What are we going to do with all the radioactive waste being discharged by U.S. nuclear power reactors?

Many conservatives on Capitol Hill favor the French “solution”: spent-fuel reprocessing. But reprocessing isn’t a solution at all: It’s a very expensive and dangerous detour. Continue reading →

September 22, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, France, wastes | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radioactive, wastes | 1 Comment

Nuclear power, tax-payer subsidised, and not popular in France

European Expert: U.S. Policymakers Are ‘As Wrong As They Can Be’ About The French Experience With Nuclear Power Marignac Says

REUTERS WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-

Nuclear power in France is not popular. The pursuit of the nuclear program in France is a permanently undemocratic choice. Contrary to the image presented in the United States, the French population is no more in favor of nuclear power than the European average – indeed a majority is opposed to the building of new plants. Surveys repeatedly show that the public lacks confidence in the institutional promoters of nuclear power. Continue reading →

September 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, spinbuster | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin | Leave a comment

France has no solution for nuclear wastes

European Expert: U.S. Policymakers Are ‘As Wrong As They Can Be’ About The French Experience With Nuclear Power Marignac Says

REUTERS WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-

“…………………French nuclear power is not “safer” . . . and the nation does not have a long term solution to waste storage. The operators of the 200 nuclear facilities in France declare a very large number of events – considered relevant for safety – every year. EDF alone declares between 10,000 and 12,000, of which 700 to 800 are deemed “incidents” or “significant events”. Continue reading →

September 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, wastes | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive | Leave a comment

Myth that nuclear power promotes ‘energy security’

European Expert: U.S. Policymakers Are ‘As Wrong As They Can Be’ About The French Experience With Nuclear Power Marignac Says

REUTERS WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire

“………– Nuclear power in France has not promoted energy independence. Nuclear power in France is a major presence, providing 76 percent of electricity produced in 2008. However, electricity accounted for only 20.7 percent of the final energy consumption in France that year. Excluding electricity exports, the overall contribution of nuclear power to France’s final energy consumption is only in the range of 14 percent. Continue reading →

September 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY, France | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin | Leave a comment

AREVA’s flagship nuclear reactors – costs are out of control

European Expert: U.S. Policymakers Are ‘As Wrong As They Can Be’ About The French Experience With Nuclear Power Marignac Says

REUTERS WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/

………………..The French EPR Reactor is a new reactor design developed by the company Areva in cooperation with the German firm Siemens. Serious doubts have been raised about the safety and cost of the EPR. Experience in the construction at the two sites where EPRs are being built, in Finland (Olkiluoto 3) and France (Flamanville 3), has revealed serious and fundamental weaknesses in design, problems during construction phases and soaring costs. Continue reading →

September 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, France | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, radioactive | 1 Comment

US govt warned on failure of France’s nuclear system

European Expert: U.S. Policymakers Are ‘As Wrong As They Can Be’ About The French Experience With Nuclear Power Marignac Says “Far From Being a Model, France Should be a Powerful Cautionary Tale for the U.S. about the Folly of a Headlong Rush into More Nuclear Power” Continue reading →

September 16, 2009 Posted by Christina Macpherson | France, spinbuster | antinuclear, AREVA, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, radioactive | Leave a comment