“Atomic Annie” spills the beans on Sarkozy’s plan to sell nukes to Gaddafi
Anne Lauvergeon, former chief executive of Areva, said in an interview published on Tuesday on the website of L’Express weekly that Sarkozy proposed in July 2007 to sell a nuclear reactor to the Gaddafi government
Ex-Areva head said Sarkozy 
hoped to sell Gaddafi nuclear-report http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/10/france-areva-idUSL6E8FA5QU20120410
PARIS, By Alexandria Sage; edited by Andrew Roche Apr 10, 2012
(Reuters) – The former head of France’s state-controlled nuclear group Areva accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy of wanting to try to sell nuclear power to Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya at least until the summer of 2010, according to a news report. Continue reading
France wants to be sure of not being liable for nuclear accidents, in selling nukes to India
According to the new Rules of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act, the foreign suppliers of nuclear material to Indian nuclear power plants would not be held liable for accidents caused by defective or faulty equipment supplied by them if the accident takes place after a guarantee period specified by them
France waits for India to clarify N-liability framework IBN LiveNew Delhi, 5 April 12, : In the midst of the run-up to the French presidential elections, France has been in dialogue with India to clarify issues relating to the nuclear liability law, and is waiting for New Delhi to establish the legal framework before signing commercial contracts for setting up atomic reactors. Continue reading
France’s nuclear plant leaks after 2 small fires
Leak Found in French Nuclear Plant http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304072004577326322716346232.html?mod=googlenews_wsj By NADYA MASIDLOVER WSJ, 6 April 12, PARIS—French state-controlled utility Electricité de France SA said late Thursday that a leak was detected at one of its nuclear reactors in northwestern France, after two small fires were extinguished at the site earlier in the day.
France’s nuclear regulator said it had provisionally ranked the leak as a low-level incident and had returned to normal management of the situation after shifting to crisis mode earlier in the day. In a statement, EDF said that a faulty joint on a pump used to cool the reactor had caused a leak inside the reactor building of its nuclear power station in Penly, Normandy. The water from the leak is currently collected in circuits which exist for this use, the company said.
The reactor, which automatically halted after the fire, continues to be cooled normally and the plant teams are working to reduce the pressure and the temperature of the water in the circuit, according to EDF.
Even after a reactor is halted, the nuclear fuel continues to generate heat and must be cooled continuously.
French nuclear safety body, Autorité de Sureté Nucléaire, said it continues to analyze the situation and follow its evolution. The regulator said the incidents had no consequence on the environment.
Earlier in the evening, a spokeswoman for EDF said that lubricant from one of the reactor’s cooling pumps had leaked on the floor, generating smoke and small flames inside the reactor building. The two small fires were extinguished Thursday afternoon.
Energy transition in Europe as nuclear power exits
The number of economically competitive non-nuclear options has therefore grown alongside the growing number of non-fossil options.
Europe’s Nuclear Exit Strategy The Market Oracle, Mar 30, 2012 By: Andrew_McKillop“.….NUCLEAR EXIT: THE SYMBOL OF ENERGY TRANSITION Even in France, where decades of state brainwashing on the benefits of nuclear power had created an apparent public-and-political consensus in favour of the Friendly Atom, opinion polls now indicate a straight majority of French want to quit nuclear power.
This opinion shift is powerfully aided by now much better information becoming available on the fantastic subsidies and support that have gone to French civil nuclear power since its very origins in 1957.
Also due to the sheer size of the French nuclear power system and its age, decommissioning will produce impossible to hide impacts on the power bills of all
consumers and users, in a context where new-build reactors to replace retired and dismantled reactors (in a process that can take 30 years for each reactor) are prohibitively costly, at admitted costs as high as 6500 euro per kiloWatt (close to US$ 9000 per kW) for Areva’s “Generation III” EPRs. Continue reading
Terrorist trial. French nuclear physicist in court
French nuclear physicist in terror trial, ANGOP International, 30 March 12, France – An Algerian-born former nuclear physicist accused of plotting with al-Qaida’s north African arm to attack a French military base or economic interests went on trial Thursday, insisting he never took any step toward carrying out terrorism — and simply exchanged ideas online.
Adlene Hicheur, 35, who used to work at Europe’s most prestigious particle accelerator, welcomed the chance to make his case: He’s been in prison for 2-1/2 years awaiting trial. But his allies worry the timing could not be worse: it comes days after France’s biggest terror attacks in years.
The case centers on about 35 emails between Hicheur and an alleged contact with Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb named Mustapha Debchi, who tried to convince him to carry out a suicide bombing. Hicheur declined, but in one response suggested striking at the barracks of a battalion of elite Alpine troops in the eastern town Cran-Gevrier…..
http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/internacional/2012/2/13/French-nuclear-physicist-terror-trial,bc4864d4-15c9-4a41-9e39-1382e5d678b9.html
With nuclear power plans, France gets control of UK energy policy
UK nuclear plans ‘put energy in French hands’, BBC News, 13 March 12, By Richard Black, BBC News Government plans for nuclear power risk handing control of the UK’s climate and energy policies to France, according to four senior environmentalists,
Energy giant EDF and reactor builder Areva, big players in the UK’s plans, are largely French government-owned. Continue reading
More woes for AREVA- the nuclear company faces legal problems
Areva could face competition inquiry if it wins UK nuclear power contract, Rival argues French state-owner company would have monopoly if chosen to build Wylfa reactor on Anglesey Dan Milmo, guardian.co.uk, 4 March 2012 Areva, the French state-owned nuclear power group, faces the threat of a competition investigation by the European commission if it wins a hotly-contested contract to build UK reactors.
Detailed legal documents drafted by a competitor and seen by the Guardian state that Areva will secure a market monopoly which should trigger a sector inquiry if the company wins the contest to build a reactor at the Wylfa site on Anglesey. Horizon, the British nuclear joint venture owned by the German power groups E.ON and RWE, is also planning a reactor for Oldbury in Gloucestershire…. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/mar/04/areva-competition-inquiry-nuclear-reactors?newsfeed=true
One stop nuclear shop AREVA suffering, as nuclear industry declines
Areva, which has been designed as a one-stop nuclear shop, has been affected by massive impairments on its uranium assets and a slowdown of the nuclear industry following Japan’s Fukushima disaster
Areva Accelerates Disposals By GERALDINE AMIEL, WSJ, March 2, 2012, PARIS—French state-controlled nuclear energy company Areva SA announced two asset disposals as part of a plan to boost competitiveness and better position it to face a slowing civil atomic industry, one year after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. Continue reading
New nukes for UK – a desperate effort to save France’s nuclear industry?
the world is experiencing a ‘glut’ of gas according to the IEA
it is now looking increasingly likely that there will be no new nuclear power stations in Britain
The decision on whether or not new nuclear is actually built in Britain will be taken in Paris, not London. And very possibly by a new French President less in thrall to the nuclear industry.
No More Nukes?, (UK) February 17, 2012 by tomburke It is just David Cameron’s bad luck to have chosen to back a nuclear future for Britain at a moment when it is becoming increasingly unlikely that it will happen. And it is entirely appropriate that he should find himself doing so in Paris since that is where the fate of DECC’s nuclear policy will be determined.
The idea of replacing Britain’s aging AGRs with Areva’s EPR was always inspired by a French government seeking to close an emerging decades long gap in domestic nuclear orders. The justification for British homeowners and businesses being forced to pay for a French industrial policy was a supposed electricity generation gap.
Without French nuclear power stations, Britons would be freezing in the dark by 2015 according to energy ministers. This was always nonsense but has been made totally ridiculous by several recent developments. Continue reading
Spies and dodgy deals at France’s nuclear power giant AREVA
Anne Lauvergeon, former boss of AREVA, claims that the spying scandal is part of a long-running plot against her, orchestrated by a small group of people who oversee France’s nuclear-energy industry
Nuclear energy in France Fallout A tale of spies, uranium and bad management, The Economist Feb 18th 2012 | PARIS FANS of the cock-up theory of events got a boost
this week when Areva, a French nuclear-energy one-stop shop, said there had been no fraud in its disastrous purchase of UraMin, a Canadian start-up firm with mining assets in Namibia, the Central African Republic and South Africa, in 2007 for $2.5 billion. The acquisition had simply been badly managed, it said, leading Areva to overpay. Last December the company took a €1.46 billion ($2 billion) charge against the acquisition, resulting in a huge operating loss for 2011.
Areva had suspected a plot. It ordered an external study of the UraMin deal in 2010, which suggested dodgy goings-on. Then in 2011 it hired a Swiss private-detective agency, Alp Services, to investigate the circumstances of the transaction. Anne Lauvergeon, Areva’s boss at the time and France’s most prominent businesswoman, was not informed of the probe.
Last month she announced that her husband had been spied on by Alp Services, and on February 8th began a legal complaint against unidentified people… Continue reading
Huge expense to extend life of France’s nuclear reactors, but cheaper than new ones
France to extend life of nuclear reactors beyond 40 years, M & C, Feb 12, 2012, Paris – French President Nicolas Sarkozy has decided to extend the life of the country’s 58 nuclear reactors beyond 40 years, Industry Minister Eric Besson said Sunday. France’s nuclear reactors were built with a 40-year life span in mind, but the nuclear safety authority can decide, on a case-by-case basis, to extend the life of a reactor.
‘The decision has been taken,’ Besson said, while acknowledging that the ASN had the final say….
.. EDF says to extend the life of a reactor would cost between 680 million euros (896 million dollars) and 860 million euros, a fraction of the cost of building a new reactor.
France gets three-quarters of its electricity from nuclear plants. A number of European countries, including Germany, pulled the plug on nuclear power in the wake of last year’s nuclear disaster in Japan but Sarkozy remains a staunch champion of atomic energy..
…. The role of nuclear power in the energy mix is a subject of debate in this year’s
presidential campaign. Sarkozy’s main challenger, Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, has
pledged to reduce the share of nuclear in the energy mix to 50 per cent by 2025….
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/news/article_1690615.php/France-to-extend-life-of-nuclear-reactors-beyond-40-years
France in financial problem, with all its energy eggs in the nuclear basket
presidential contender Holland now says that he would only close the nation’s oldest such nuclear plant in his first five years in office……
Critics say that the billions it will cost to make such [necessary safety] upgrades is money that could otherwise be spent developing the country’s green energy program.
French Nuclear Debate Ignites Amidst Presidential Race, Forbes, 2/08/2012 Japan’s nuclear tragedy is igniting a debate in France , which generates more than three-quarters of its electricity from nuclear energy. And while that nation’s presidential candidates are squaring off on the issue, an independent audit agency there may have settled the dispute for them. Continue reading
Level 2 nuclear incidents in France
France declares level 2 nuclear event at Cattenom Feb 6, 2012
* Reactors not shut down after the fault was found
* EDF given 10 days on Jan. 24 to make repairs
* There were four level two events in 2011
PARIS, Feb 6 (Reuters) – France’s nuclear safety authority (ASN) said on Monday it had identified a problem with water pipes at one of EDF’s nuclear plants and rated it a level two event out of a maximum seven on the international nuclear event scale (INES).
Level two ratings occur relatively rarely, but the watchdog said there was no impact on plant workers or the environment from the event. In 2011, the ASN gave four incidents a level two rating. Japan’s Fukushima disaster was rated a level seven event.
Pipes used to pump water into fuel rod cooling pools at reactors 2 and 3 at EDF’s Cattenom nuclear plant were not equipped with a mechanism to prevent them from accidentally pumping water out of the basins.
In case water levels fall in rod cooling pools, the exposed fuel would heat up and release dangerous radioactive material. “Due to the potential consequences, this event was placed on a level 2 of the INES scale,” the watchdog said in a statement….. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/06/france-nuclear-ines-idUSL5E8D63C120120206
Nuclear reactors and childhood leukaemia
French researchers have confirmed that childhood leukaemia rates are shockingly elevated among children living near nuclear power reactors.Independent Australiahttp://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/health/study-shows-childhood-leukemia-spikes-around-french-nuclear-reactors/ John LaForge from Truthout reports. The ‘International Journal of Cancer’ has published in January a scientific study establishing a clear correlation between the frequency of acute childhood leukaemia and proximity to nuclear power stations. Continue reading
France, no new nuclear reactors, and can’t afford to shut down existing ones
France must extend nuclear reactor lifespans-audit Jan 31, 2012 Some 22 nuclear reactors will reach 40 years old by 2022
* EDF wants to extend reactors lifespan to 60 years
* Heavy investments needed in short, medium term
PARIS, Jan 31 (Reuters) – France has no option but to extend the lifespan of existing nuclear plants, because any investments in new nuclear capacity or an increase in its reliance on other forms of energy would be too costly and come too late, the French Court of Audit said.
The French independent government body, which is charged with conducting financial and legislative audits, said in a report that a lack of investment decisions to build new reactors meant there were few choices left. Continue reading
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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