France’s nuclear energy inextricably entwined with nuclear weaponry
as civilian and military nuclear programs
have been intertwined for decades, cutting financing for civilian
nuclear research projects would increase the cost of maintaining the
nuclear arsena
A French nuclear exit? e! Science News, January 7, 2013 France has
been held up, worldwide, as the forerunner in using nuclear fission to
produce electricity. However, a third of the nation’s nuclear reactors
will need replacing in the next decade, and public opinion has shifted
toward reducing reliance on nuclear power. In a special issue of the
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE four articles
explore whether France has the means or desire to unplug from nuclear
power. Continue reading
Nuclear energy company EDF launches wind energy project
France’s EDF launches its first wind farm in Poland
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/67517
04-Jan-13
Country: POLAND
Author: Agnieszka Barteczko
French power company EDF has launched its first wind farm in Poland, a
48 megawatt (MW) facility located in the northern part of the country,
the firm said on Thursday.
The utility’s unit, EDF Energies Nouvelles, bought the Linowo windfarm
last year to strengthen its position in the coal-dependant European
Union nation looking to boost the share of renewables in its energy
supplies.
Poland has around 2,000 MW of installed wind energy, representing more
than 5 percent of the power system’s total capacity. It has targeted
boosting that capacity to 6,000 MW by 2030.
Under EU law at least 15 percent of Poland’s energy production must
come from renewable sources by 2020.
UK’s Hinkley Point nuclear plans could be derailed by France’s probe into EDF
Reports: EDF inquiry could disrupt UK nuclear plans Financial Times suggests investigation could complicate strike price negotiations and unsettle investors
BusinessGreen 03 Jan 2013 The UK’s ambitions for a new fleet of nuclear reactors could be disrupted by a French government probe into state-owned generator EDF, whose UK arm is currently in negotiations to build a £14bn nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
The formal inquiry established in the last days of 2012 is billed as an industry-wide investigation, but French media are reporting it is specifically focused on EDF and its relationships with China.
The Financial Times said yesterday that the inquiry casts doubt over the future of EDF chief executive Henri Proglio, who has been unable to replicate the close relationship he enjoyed with former President Nicolas Sarkozy with his successor, François Hollande. , observers are concerned the probe could have a knock-on effect on EDF’s stance towards building a new reactor at Hinkley Point, especially if the French government decides it should not take the risk of subsidising UK energy consumers. Any shift in EDF’s position would further complicate ongoing negotiations with the UK government over the level of subsidy, or strike price, that will be provided to support the Hinkley Point plant.
Last year, it was reported EDF Energy was looking for a payment of between £100 per megawatt hour (MWh) and £140/MWh to go ahead with the plant and that a final investment decision had been delayed from the end of 2012 to April 2013….. http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2233578/reports-edf-inquiry-could-disrupt-uk-nuclear-plans
Investigation of secret nuclear deals between France’s EDF and China
The Inspector General of Finance (IGF) is intensely interested in the first agreement between EDF and CGNPC that defined a partnership whose goal it was to build nuclear power plants together. The plants would be equipped with a new reactor type, the latest and greatest alternative to the catastrophically over-budget and now stalled European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) that Areva had been pushing for years.
That EDF, which was mostly government-owned, could even envision a deal that would hurt Areva, which was wholly government-owned, was simply too galling..
Blowing Up Now: The Transfer Of French Nuclear Technology To China Zero Hedge, 12/28/2012 Wolf Richter
Technology transfers, whether on a contractual basis or through theft, have long bedeviled companies that want to benefit from China’s cheap labor and 1.3 billion consumers. Automakers, aerospace companies, technology outfits…. it’s the price they have to pay.
But when it seeped out that the largely state-owned nuclear industry in France was trying to sell its secrets to China to make a deal, oh là là!…..
Nuclear energy—where France has also been proudly on the forefront—was going to be next. Until the scandal of massive nuclear-technology transfers broke into the open. The central figure, Henri Proglio, CEO of mega-utility EDF that owns France’s 58 active nuclear reactors but derives almost half of its revenues from outside France, has come under investigation by the Inspector General of Finance (IGF). Of particular interest: the agreement to sell nuclear and industrial secrets and knowhow to China in order to conclude a deal that had been “aborted.”…. Continue reading Nuclear firm AREVA hedging its bets- making wind turbines now
Areva plans 750 jobs with Scottish wind turbine factory, Telegraph,
By Emily Gosden 19 Nov 2012 French energy company Areva has
unveiled plans for a wind turbine factory in Scotland that could
create up to 750 jobs.
The plant at the Firth of Forth would manufacture turbines for use off
the coast of the UK, each generating 5 megawatts of electricity, which
could supply 6,000 homes a year.
The move was hailed as “brilliant news for Scotland” by Prime Minister
David Cameron, who added: “Growth of the renewable energy sector isn’t
just good for our environment, it’s good for our economy too.”…..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/9689022/Areva-plans-750-jobs-with-Scottish-wind-turbine-factory.html
Probe into EDF – China deal to develop a new type of nuclear reactor
EDF declines comment on China nuclear probe report PARIS http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/12/25/uk-edf-china-nuclear-idUKBRE8BO03K20121225 by Lionel
Laurent and Gerard Bon Dec 25, 2012
Electricite de France (EDF.PA) on Tuesday declined to
comment on a report of a probe into its recent partnership with a
Chinese utility to develop a new type of nuclear reactor.
Several French news websites cited a forthcoming article in satirical
weekly Le Canard Enchaine, due to appear on Wednesday, as saying that
French finance-ministry inspectors had begun an inquiry into the terms
of the China agreement.
“We have no reaction,” a spokeswoman for EDF said, adding she had not
seen the forthcoming article. The French finance ministry was
unavailable for comment.EDF had said in November that the agreement
with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation Holding GDNCP.UL was to
develop a concept for a 1,000-MW reactor. This would be cheaper and
smaller than the 1,600-MW EPR reactor blamed for the loss of a
landmark project in Abu Dhabi in 2009.
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
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Report Launch Online: We are seeing an increasing exploitation of space for military and commercial purposes. This must change.
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Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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