Only 5 Polynesians to get compensation for French nuclear tests
Pacific Islands Development Program, East-West Center With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawai‘i WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, Dec. 12, 2012) – France has agreed to compensate five French Polynesians for the damage caused to their health by its nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific.
The Nouvelles de Tahiti says this was announced after a meeting of the compensation committee at the defense ministry in Paris.
In July, France had deemed that only four of the 720 applications were eligible for any compensation under a law passed three years ago.
Veterans’ organizations have strongly criticized the law for being far too restrictive, but the new defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, says any change to it is not on the agenda.
Until 2008, France claimed that its nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific were clean and had caused no harm.
It looks like the end for new nuclear industry in France
“In a way, the last 24 hours have killed French nuclear finally because the cost makes it totally impossible to export and now you have one of the few partners actively withdrawing; it looks really bad,”
Last 24 hours have ‘killed’ French nuclear – analyst http://enformable.com/2012/12/last-24-hours-have-killed-french-nuclear-analyst/ 6 Dec 12, French power utility EDF received a fresh blow on Tuesday after Italy’s biggest utility Enel announced it has pulled out from a project to build a next-generation nuclear reactor in northern France, and five other power plants to be built in France using EPR technology, following last year’s referendum in Italy to prevent nuclear energy from returning into the nation. Continue reading
In France, wind energy is now cheaper than nuclear
wind in France is paid only €0.08 per kWh ($0.10 per kWh) and clearly competitive with new nuclear.
Wind energy now cheaper than nuclear in France http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/wind-energy-now-cheaper-than-nuclear-in-france-92181 REneweconomy, By Paul Gipe on 5 December 2012
Liberation reports that for the second time in a little more than a year the cost of a new reactor under construction at Flamanville, France has risen dramatically. Continue reading
Even France can’t build a nuclear reactor economically, and in the planned time
The spiralling costs at Flamanville, and at another EPR being built by French engineering company Areva in Finland, have raised questions about the viability of nuclear power.
“If there’s anywhere that the EPR should be built on time and on budget it surely must be France,” said Dr Paul Dorfman, founder of the Nuclear Consulting Group. “The fact that it hasn’t been has profound implications for nuclear new build in the UK.”
EDF plant cost rises damp nuclear hopes Ft.com, By Guy Chazan and James Boxell, 3 Dec 12 EDF, the French utility, said the cost of its new nuclear power station in northern France had increased by a third, raising fears that its planned UK plant may also be vulnerable to a similar budget blowout. But EDF Energy, the company’s UK subsidiary, insisted that the cost issues in Flamanville, Normandy, would have no bearing on its plans for Hinkley Point in Somerset. Continue reading
France’s confidence in nuclear power is cracking
First public debate on nuclear energy Oman daily Observer, 01 December 2012 By Muriel Boselli — For decades, the elite engineers turned out by Paris’s grand Corps des Mines academy were faithful followers of the pro-atomic creed that transformed their country into the most nuclear-reliant nation in the world. But a new generation of Mines graduates is starting to question that policy. It is a change of mindset that could aid efforts by President Francois Hollande to cut reliance on nuclear power from 75 per cent to 50 per cent of the electricity mix by 2025……
The Corps des Mines became an example of French post-war “dirigisme”
— the policy under which the state seeks to direct the economy —
determining how nuclear energy was used for civilian and military
purposes, with the development of France’s atomic bomb.
The construction of 58 nuclear reactors prompted successive French
governments to invest massively in electric heating to absorb the
supplies. France became the world’s top electricity exporter. Now some
Mines graduates say the heavy dependence on one energy form means
France struggles to cope with seasonal demand spikes…..
Alumni include Anne Lauvergeon, ex-head of nuclear giant Areva,
current head of France’s nuclear energy watchdog ASN, Pierre-Franck
Chevet, his predecessor Andre-Claude Lacoste, and Jacques Repussard of
the IRSN nuclear safety institute.
France’s dilemma: reliance on aging nuclear reactors
State-owned utility EDF, which operates all of France’s reactors, has said it aims to extend their lifespan to 60 years
France faces twin tasks of ageing nuclear fleet, staff, By Michel Rose and Marion Douet PARIS Nov 22, 2012 (Reuters) – An ageing fleet of nuclear power plants and retirement of
half of EDF’s nuclear staff in the next 5 years are the main challenges the French nuclear safety watchdog is facing and will have to deal with, its new head said on Thursday.
France, the most nuclear-reliant nation in the world, will have to decide in the next few years whether to extend the lifespan of its 58 nuclear reactors to over 40 years, at a time it is trying to cut its reliance on the atom. Continue reading
France’s top-down energy system makes it hard to switch to renewables
Some 95 percent of the territory’s electricity supply network is now managed by ERDF, a fully-owned branch of former state monopoly EDF.
“The French grid is a top-down network, conceived for a centralised production. It has to be restructured so power can flow in both directions. Today the grid is only used to distribute power from nuclear plants,”
France needs more local power for green energy shift PlanetArk 15-Nov-12 FRANCE Marion Douet Centralised France may lack the clout at local government level to ease its new shift to greener energy, contrasting with the regional and grass-roots power that helped push through the rise of renewables in Germany. Continue reading
France’s troubled fleet of EDF nuclear reactors
Six weeks left to bring back reactors says EDF, Oct 17, 2012
* One third of EDF’s nuclear power fleet still offline
* Europe faces more fragile supply context this year
* RTE could be forced to clip some demand during peak use
Reuters, By Marion Douet MONTESQUIEU-DES-ALBERES, France, Oct 17 – French state-owned utility only has six weeks left to ensure its troubled fleet of nuclear power reactors is capable of producing enough electricity to cope with winter demand, the French power grid’s head said on Wednesday.
Around a third of EDF’s 58 nuclear reactors — which are on average 26 years old — have been offline since April due to a maintenance, problems restarting some of the ageing reactors and unexpected outages.
This has led to questions over the energy company’s ability to adequately supply its customers in time this winter with supply already been hit by hitches at French and Belgium reactors……
French research confirms childhood leukaemia rates up, near nuclear power plants
Fukushima’s Hot Water: Now Fallout in Our Kitchens? On The Issue, by Kimberly Roberson, 21 Oct 12, “……Just this year, French researchers confirmed that childhood leukemia rates are greatly elevated among children living near nuclear power plants. The January 2012 International Journal of Cancer published the study,Childhood Leukemia Around French Nuclear Power Plants — the Geocap Study 2002-2007.
The inherent function of nuclear reactors requires routine invisible releases of cancer-causing radionuclides via the towers. Researchers also continue to see increases in cancer clusters — especially of thyroid cancer, breast cancer and leukemia — in areas near nuclear power plants.
In addition, how to handle the waste from nuclear power plants is still unsolved. The question is: how to safely store the millions of pounds of so-called “spent fuel” created by nuclear power production. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was recently forced to halt licenses for new nuclear plants until a solution can be found to store deadly radioactive waste that will remain hazardous for millennia at best. http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/2012fall/2012fall_Roberson.php
France planning the move away from nuclear power
French Nuclear Reliance to Drop Without Reactor Halts, EDF Says Bloomberg, By Tara Patel – Oct 4, 2012 Forecasts for rising power use will curb Electricite de France’s ability to satisfy domestic demand even without the closure of more nuclear reactors, Chief Executive Officer Henri Proglio said. That would see the country’s reliance on nuclear power dropping to 50 percent of power production by about 2025 from more than 75 percent now, he said.
That would meet President Francois Hollande’s campaign pledge to reduce France’s dependence on nuclear generation. Progio’s comments come ahead of a national debate on energy which the government has said will lay the groundwork for legislation that could determine EDF’s spending plans on its reactors for decades. Continue reading
France to develop tidal wave energy
Wind energy production in Europe, for example, just reached the 100 gigawatt mark, the equivalent of 39 nuclear power plants
French dive into tidal energy as nuclear plants bid adieu Smart Planet, By Bryan Pirolli | September 28, 2012,PARIS – French conglomerate Alstom is finalizing the purchase of Tidal Generation Ltd from Rolls Royce in the UK. Alstom , one of the largest energy-producing groups in the world, purchased the small company in an effort to expand its every-growing array of renewable energy.
The sale of TGL to Alstom comes just as the new French president, Francois Hollande, announced his commitment to renewable energy and decreasing France’s dependence on nuclear power.
Tidal Generation Ltd (TGL), formed in 2005, specializes in designing turbines for generating electricity from ocean tides. Continue reading
Poorly paid, dangerous, work of nuclear sub-contracted workers
Desirability of nuclear power is the real question, THE HINDU, 28 Sept 12
MADHUMITA DUTTA“……In France, over 20,000-30,000 workers dubbed as “nuclear nomads” are subcontracted annually in the 58 nuclear reactors operated by Électricité de France S.A. (EDF) located in 20 sites which contribute 78 per cent of the electricity produced in the country.
EDF subcontracts over 1,000 companies, who employ the “nuclear nomads,” sometimes of foreign origin, to do the dangerous maintenance, repair and clean-up work in these plants, exposing them to ionising radiations. In her book “Nuclear Servitude: Subcontracting and Health in the French Civil Nuclear Industry,” French social scientist Annie Thébaud-Mony has highlighted this division of labour and “risk” by subcontracting dangerous work in the French nuclear power industry.
In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, over 18,000 workers were hired to clean-up the power plant, who were all subcontracted to do dangerous radioactive clean-up work. These men, hailed as “national heroes” by many, were actually local residents rendered unemployed by the disaster or were daily wagers from city slums.
Since the 1970s, Japan has had a dubious track record of subcontracting maintenance
work of reactors to outside companies which hire workers on a short-term basis who remain employed till they reach their radiation exposure limit (Nuclear Nomads: A look at the Sub-contracted Heroes by Gabrielle Hecht in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 9, 2012)…. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/desirability-of-nuclear-power-is-the-real-question/article3939373.ece
Prestige, but not real usefulness, from UK and France’s costly nuclear deterrents
France and Britain Weigh the Price of Nuclear Deterrence International Herald Tribune By HARVEY MORRIS , 27 sept 12 LONDON — There were reports on Thursday of stirrings within the British military about the need to scale back the country’s nuclear deterrent in order to spend the money on confronting more conventional threats. Continue reading
Radiation medicine scandal in France
French trial opens on cancer radiation scandal, France 24, 25 SEPTEMBER 2012 Radiophysicist Joshua Anah along with two doctors, is accused of involuntary homicide, not helping people in danger and destroying evidence arising from radiation overdoses given to nearly 450 cancer patients in a French hospital.
AFP – Two doctors and a radio physicist were due to go on trial Monday on manslaughter charges arising from radiation overdoses given to nearly 450 cancer patients in a French hospital. At least seven people died as a result of overdoses administered to patients at the Jean Monnet hospital in Epinal in northeastern France between 2001 and 2006.
At least 24 people treated between May 2004 and August 2005 received 20 percent more radiation than they should have due to a calibration error.
Another dysfunction led to 424 people being overdosed by between eight and 10 percent in the period spanning 2001 and 2006. Many of the victims were being treated for prostrate cancer.
Scores of victims are due to testify from Monday until October 31, some of them by video-link because they are too ill to attend court. The two doctors, Jean-Francois Sztermer, 64, Michel Aubertel, 62, and radio physicist Joshua Anah, 54, are accused of involuntary homicide, not helping people in danger and destroying evidence.
Three health executives are also in the dock on charges of not helping people in danger…..http://www.france24.com/en/20120925-french-trial-opens-cancer-radiation-scandal
France’s largest solar energy array built in just 6 months
France’s Biggest Rooftop Solar Array Using Hanwha Solar Panels by Energy Matters, 23 Sept 12 Hanwha Group has announced it delivered 7.7 MW of solar modules for the largest rooftop installation in France.
A Rion-des-Landes building designed for the cultivation of ginseng is now sporting 36,900 PV panels in total. The rooftop is massive, covering 9 hectares. The solar array is expected to generate 10,000,000 kilowatt hours annually, enough to supply the needs of 4,000 households.
Constructed by Solvéo Energie, the project was finished in just 6 months.
“The cooperation with Hanwha Solar made the realization of this huge project possible,” said Jean-Marc Matéos, President of Solvéo Energie. “The professionalism and responsiveness of service that Hanwha Solar displayed during the process have significantly contributed to the successful construction.”
As well as commercial solar power installations; Hanwha SolarOne panels are also used in residential installs. Offering guaranteed power output, Hanwha SolarOne modules perform particularly well in low-light conditions.. http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3391
1 This Month
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
of the week–London Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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