France acknowledges Polynesian islands ‘strong-armed’ into dangerous nuclear tests, Telegraph UK Henry Samuel, Paris, 24 MAY 2019 France has officially acknowledged for the first time that French Polynesians were effectively forced into accepting almost 200 nuclear tests conducted over a 30-year period, and that it is responsible for compensating them for the illnesses caused by the fallout.
The French parliament issued the much-awaited admission in a bill reforming the status of the collectivity of 118 islands in the South Pacific, with MPs saying the change should make it easier for the local population to request compensation for cancer and other illnesses linked to radioactivity.
From 1966 to 1996, France carried out 193 nuclear tests around the paradise islands, including Bora Bora and Tahiti, immortalised by Paul Gauguin. Images of a mushroom cloud over the Moruroa atoll, one of two used as test sites along with Fangataufa, provoked international protests.
Charles De Gaulle and subsequent presidents had thanked French Polynesians for their role in assuring the grandeur of France by allowing it to conduct the tests.
But in the parliamentary bill, France acknowledges that the islands were “called upon” – effectively strong-armed – into accepting the tests for the purposes of “building (its) nuclear deterrent and national defence”.
It also stipulates that the French state will “ensure the maintenance and surveillance of the sites concerned” and “support the economic and structural reconversion of French Polynesia following the cessation of nuclear tests”.
Patrice Bouveret of the Observatoire des armements (Armaments Observatory), an independent organisation that has been assessing the impacts of French nuclear testing in Polynesia since 1984, welcomed the reform.
“It recognises the fact that local people’s health could have been affected and thus the French state’s responsibility in compensating them for such damage. Until now, the entire French discourse was that the tests were ‘clean’ – that was the actual word used – and that they had taken all due precautions for staff and locals.”
However, he said it was a “scandal” that it had taken 23 years for France to officially recognise its responsibility, and said there was nothing in the law on the ill-effects on future generations……. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/24/france-acknowledges-polynesian-islands-strong-armed-dangerous/
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May 25, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, indigenous issues, OCEANIA, weapons and war |
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Times 20th May 2019 , France will enter new democratic territory next month when 150 randomly selected citizens will be asked to overhaul the country’s environmental policies, President Macron’s government announced yesterday.
The group will draw up plans on issues ranging from global warming to biodiversity which Mr Macron has pledged to implement, to put to a referendum or to turn into legislation that will go before parliament. The Citizens’ Convention
for the Climate is being organised in an attempt to meet yellow-vest protesters’ demands for MPs to be bypassed in a move towards direct democracy.
Yet the initiative is fraught with dangers for Mr Macron, who risks losing control of the political agenda. Some of his supporters fear that far from appeasing the campaigners, the process could inflame their anger by reintroducing the fuel duty rises that ignited the protest movement in November.
May 21, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
climate change, France, politics |
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Montel News 17th May 2019 EDF must repair welds or reinforce new reactor – ASN. French utility EDF
must repair faulty welds on its new generation European pressurised reactor
(EPR) Flamanville or reinforce the under construction plant, the ASN
nuclear safety authority said.
These were the “two options currently on
the table”, said ASN president Bernard Doroszczuk during a presentation
of the watchdog’s annual safety report to parliamentarians on Thursday.
The ASN would announce a final decision on which course to take next month,
he added, with Montel having reported earlier this week that this would
happen once its group of experts had met on 6 June.
While repairing the
welds was “quite feasible”, reinforcing the 1.6 GW plant could be a
“complex operation” for which the unit was not necessarily conceived,
said Doroszczuk. However, the “French nuclear industry is currently
facing a skills shortage”, which could complicate things, he added.
Repairing the welds could push back the planned start-up of the reactor
early next year by two years to 2022, sources told Montel last month. Last
July, EDF delayed the 1.6 GW EPR launch by yet another year due to the
defective welds. It also raised the total estimated cost of construction by
EUR 400m to EUR 10.9bn.
May 20, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, safety |
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French watchdog investigates potential nuclear safety fraud https://www.reuters.com/article/france-nuclear-fraud/update-1-french-watchdog-investigates-potential-nuclear-safety-fraud-idUSL5N22P2X6 (Adds detail on falsification of identities)PARIS, May 13 (Reuters) – French nuclear regulator ASN said it had launched an investigation into elements of fraud and falsification regarding nuclear safety, after receiving several warnings from whistleblowers.
Last November, the ASN launched a website where the public can highlight irregularities regarding nuclear safety, which followed a 2016 scandal over falsified manufacturing documents at former nuclear reactor maker Areva and a string of problems with weldings and components at EDF nuclear reactors. Areva is now part of state-owned utility EDF and renamed Framatome.
The ASN said in a statement on Monday that since then it had received 22 warnings and had launched an investigation into a small number of these as they had the characteristics of potential fraud cases.
It also said it had already referred four cases to the criminal court. It declined to give more details about them.
The regulator did not identify any companies involved in the investigation.
EDF – which operates the 58 nuclear reactors that generate some three quarters of French electricity – said it could not immediately comment on ASN’s statement.
The ASN said that initial investigations had revealed several problems, such as the use of inappropriate materials, certain activities, such as welding, carried out by people who did not have the necessary skills, and safety controls that were either missing or executed by internal staff only.
The regulator said this could have a number of implications, such as modification of test results, falsification of the identity of staff having and the non-execution of certain operations such as the replacement of components. (Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Jane Merriman)
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May 14, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, secrets,lies and civil liberties |
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Le Monde 15th April 2019 For several weeks, EDF’s management and the executive have been
preparing a plan to separate nuclear activities from the rest of the group.
A high-risk issue for the government.
https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2019/04/15/les-pistes-du-gouvernement-pour-decouper-edf_5450313_3234.html
Le Monde 15th April 2019 The CGT secretary of the EDF works council, François Dos Santos, protested against the government’s desire to divide the group into two separate
subsidiaries.
https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2019/04/15/edf-modifier-le-perimetre-du-groupe-est-inacceptable_5450416_3234.html
April 18, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, France, politics |
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Times 16th April 2019 A row erupted in France yesterday after it emerged that EDF’s board will discuss plans to renationalise the group’s nuclear activities and split them from the rest of its business. Unions reacted with anger to what they depicted as the first step towards the dismantling of the energy group that is building Britain’s new reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
The board is due to review the restructuring plan next month before presenting it to senior managers and union representatives in June, according to a source. The scheme involves the creation of a parent company to run the group’s 58 reactors in France, as well as new ones that it may build.
This part of the group could be renationalised, rolling back the partial privatisation of EDF in 2004, which left the state with an 83.7 per cent stake. Most of the rest of the group’s activities then would be placed in a subsidiary that would continue to seek private investors under the plan, which has been codenamed Project Hercules, according to the newspaper Le Parisien.
People close to President Macron, who has the final say, claim that he broadly supports the idea, but may backtrack if the price of compensating shareholders proves to be beyond the means of France’s hard-pressed state budget. A fierce union reaction also could prompt him to retreat,
commentators said.
Although a source insisted that the restructuring would have no direct impact on Hinkley Point, it is likely to create short-term uncertainty for EDF Energy, the group’s British division.
EDF is struggling to meet the cost of renovating its ageing French nuclear fleet, which is estimated at between €55 billion and €75 billion. In addition, the group, which has a debt of €33 billion, is facing several other difficulties, not least that it is committed to funding two thirds of the estimated £22.3 billion cost of the new-generation European pressurised reactors being built at Hinkley Point.
A similar reactor at Flamanville in northern France was meant to cost €3 billion and come on stream in 2012. The reactor is still not operating and the budget has reached €10.9 billion. Last week, it emerged that experts had advised that EDF should repair faulty weldings at Flamanville, which would add hundreds of millions of euros to the bill and lead to a further delay.
April 18, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, France, politics |
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 France’s ASN regulator keeps enhanced monitoring of EDF’s Belleville nuclear power plant https://uk.reuters.com/article/france-nuclearpower-safety/frances-asn-regulator-keeps-enhanced-monitoring-of-edfs-belleville-nuclear-power-plant-idUKL5N21Z2CQ, PARIS, April 17 (Reuters) – France’s ASN nuclear regulator said on Wednesday it was maintaining its close supervision of utility EDF’s 2,600 MW Belleville nuclear power plant, due to the need to continue to monitor safety practices despite some improvements.
The regulator placed the plant under enhanced supervision in September 2017, citing failures in safety standards.
It noted that the state of the plant’s installations and safety practices had generally improved in 2018, but there was still work to do.
“However… the progress noted remains to be consolidated and that the performance of the facilities must still improve,” the ASN said in a statement.
The ASN also said it will carry out additional inspections and checks to documentation, while keeping track of EDF’s action plan to fix the issues. (Reporting by Bate Felix; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta) |
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April 18, 2019
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France, safety |
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Liberation 11th April 2019 The Flamanville EPR risks a new catastrophic delay for EDF. The group ofexperts of the Nuclear Safety Authority considers that the electrician must
“repair” eight large defective welds on the Flamanville reactor. The work
could last until 2022 at the risk of ruining the reputation of the EPR,
which is already years behind schedule.
https://www.liberation.fr/france/2019/04/11/l-epr-de-flamanville-risque-d-accuser-un-nouveau-retard-catastrophique-pour-edf_1720782
April 13, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, France |
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ICIS 5th April 2019 The commissioning of France’s long-overdue 1.65GW Flamanville 3 nuclear project could face further delays, according to industry stakeholders. A group of experts from French nuclear authority ASN, nuclear safety institute IRSN and utility EDF are set to meet on 9 April to discuss what to do about the welds of the plant’s EPR reactor, IRSN’s director Jean Cristophe-Niel said at a conference in Paris on Thursday.
At the meeting ASN could communicate to EDF whether it would want the welds to be entirely rebuilt or just repaired. If ASN does order the welds to be rebuilt this could significantly delay the commissioning of the plant which was previously set for winter 2019-2020.
The project has already faced delays spanning seven years. ASN will have to communicate its final decision on
Flamanville’s welds in May. The director of energy think-tank WISE-paris Yves Marignac also said at the conference that it was possible Flamanville 3 would be delayed further with no clear timeframe in sight. A number of
traders present at the conference said they were not surprised by this possibility given the project’s track record.
https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2019/04/05/10345828/another-flamanville-3-nuclear-plant-delay-increasingly-likely/
April 8, 2019
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France, safety |
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Mediapart 1st April 2019 , The public consultation on the extension of the oldest French nuclear
reactors has just ended in general indifference. The debate is impaired
by the technicality of the exchanges, the bureaucracy of the procedures and
the lack of will to make room for the citizens.
Sunday, March 31 closed a debate that did not take place: the public consultation on the improvement
of nuclear reactors 900 megawatts (MW), the oldest, as part of the review
they must undergo at their fortieth year of operation. The stakes are high:
under what conditions can the oldest EDF power stations continue to produce
electricity, even though they are reaching an age originally planned as a
terminal? https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/010419/nucleaire-le-debat-qui-n-pas-lieu
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April 4, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, politics |
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Nuclear test victim ordered to repay compensation, https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/385484/nuclear-test-victim-ordered-to-repay-compensation A victim of the French nuclear tests in the South Pacific has been ordered to repay more than $US60,000 paid out in compensation to her.Florence Bourel is a former secretary of the Atomic Energy Commission, who was sent to the weapons test site at Moruroa over a 12-year period.
She developed thyroid cancer which in 2002 was recognised as a work-related condition.
The test veterans organisation in France reports that in 2008, a court ordered for her to be compensated but the health insurance successfully appealed the decision.
A reassessment placed her condition below the disability level eligible for compensation, which she says implies that nothing had ever happened to her.
She says out of her pension she has to repay $60,000 and there is no recourse.
She also says her daughters have also been affected and one of her grand-daughters had an operation for a radiation-induced disease.
March 25, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, Legal |
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IRSN 22nd March 2019 On Wednesday, March 20, 2019, at 10:56 local time, an earthquake of moderate magnitude (between 4.7 and 5.0 on the Richter scale) occurred in Montendre (Charente-Maritime). This earthquake was followed at 11:30 of a magnitude replica of 2.8.
The closest nuclear installation to the earthquake is the Blayais nuclear power generation center, located 27 km
from the epicenter. The Civaux and Golfech power plants are located respectively at 145 and 169 km from the epicenter. The Seismic Risk Assessment Office for Facility Safety (BERSSIN) of IRSN has prepared a briefing note on the characteristics of this earthquake.
https://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_presse/Actualites/Pages/20190322_fiche-seisme-montendre-charente-maritime-20032019.aspx
March 25, 2019
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France, safety |
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Les Echos 23rd March 2019 Another place, another atmosphere. Xi Jinping’s
visit to France is not expected to lead to any major breakthrough on Orano’s long-awaited contract to build a used nuclear fuel processing and recycling plant in China.
Fifteen months after Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Beijing during which the French industrialist and his partner CNNC had concluded a new memorandum of understanding , Orano (the former Areva refocused on the fuel cycle) is still far from to have won the bet. At the time, Orano and CNNC had given themselves until the end of 2018 to formally agree on this mega contract of more than 10 billion dollars.
ttps://www.lesechos.fr/monde/chine/0600942449579-la-gueule-de-bois-du-nucleaire-francais-en-chine-2254727.php#xtor=CS1-33
March 25, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
China, France, marketing |
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CTY Pisces – Photos of a Japanese midget submarine that was sunk off Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack. There’s a hole at the base of the conning tower where an artillery shell penetrated the hull, sinking the sub and killing the crew. Photos courtesy of Terry Kerby, Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. August 2003.
15,000 Feet Below the Waves Lurks Trouble: This Dead Russian Submarine Is Nuclear Armed “Unfortunately, the loss of power onboard and the difficult weather conditions were too much for the crew to overcome. On April 12, K-8 sank with some forty crew members aboard, coming to rest at a rough depth of 15,000 feet. The depth made any effort at recovering the submarine, and the nuclear torpedoes, impractical.”
National Interest, by Robert Farley, 10 Mar 19
n April 8, K-8 suffered two fires, resulting in a shutdown of both nuclear reactors. The boat surfaced, and Captain Vsevolod Borisovich Bessonov ordered the crew to abandon ship. Eight crew members, trapped in compartments that were either flooded or burned out, died in the initial incident. Fortunately, a Soviet repair vessel arrived, and took K-8 under tow. However, bad weather made the recover operation a difficult prospect. Much of K-8’s crew reboarded the submarine, and for three days fought a life-and-death struggle to save the boat. Although details remain scarce, there apparently was no opportunity to safely remove the four nuclear torpedoes from K-8, and transfer them to the repair ship.
The Bay of Biscay is one of the world’s great submarine graveyards. In late World War II, British and American aircraft sank nearly seventy German U-boats in the Bay, which joined a handful of Allied and German subs sunk in the region during World War I. On April 12, 1970, a Soviet submarine found the same resting place. Unlike the others, however, K-8 was propelled by two nuclear reactors, and carried four torpedoes tipped by nuclear warheads……… https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/15000-feet-below-waves-lurks-trouble-dead-russian-submarine-nuclear-armed-46652
March 10, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
France, wastes, weapons and war |
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