France’s nuclear watchdog warns of safety flaws in reactors
France must tighten nuclear security after Fukushima, watchdog says, By RFI 17 November 2011 France must urgently improve safety in its 58 nuclear reactors in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster, an official report published Thursday said. The head of the French nuclear watchdog warned of “small faults that could have serious consequences”. Continue reading
France – politics – opposition to nuclear power
Green party presidential candidate Eva Joly has denounced claims of hundreds of thousands of job losses as “scandalous lies” and said 600,000 jobs would be created by 
tapping alternative energy sources like solar and wind power.
Sarkozy has insisted he will continue supporting nuclear energy, saying the Fukushima disaster was “not a nuclear accident, it was an enormous tsunami”…..
France opposition to reduce nuclear power , SMH, Michael Mainville,November 17, 2011 – France’s long-held support for nuclear energy has emerged as a key issue in next year’s election after the opposition Socialists and Greens agreed to joint efforts to reduce reliance on atomic power.
The deal marks the first significant move toward limiting nuclear power in France Continue reading
France grapples with the eternal unsolved problem of nuclear wastes
A pyramid to warn of a French nuclear waste site?, By Muriel Boselli, PARIS | Tue Nov 8, 2011 (Reuters) – How can mankind signal to future generations thousands of years from now that hazardous radioactive waste is buried deep underground in eastern France — by building a giant pyramid, a museum or a site for art projects or by employing geology? Continue reading
France’s spy court case shows up dirty tactics of nuclear lobby
This spying scandal and verdict against EDF couldn’t have come at a worse time for the global nuclear industry
Nuclear giant EDF found guilty of spying on
Greenpeace, Greenpeace, by JustinMcKeating – November 10, 2011, As the great Mahatma Gandhi (nearly) said, ”First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they spy on you, then you win”.
That’s pretty much the chain of events that lead to today’s conviction by a French court of French state electricity company, Electricité de France SA (EDF) for spying on us. The court fined the company 1.5 million Euros and ordered it to pay €500,000 in damages to Greenpeace France. In addition, the court sent the four men involved, two of them senior EDF executives, to jail as well – and fined three of them. Continue reading
France to consider all nuclear options, including exit from nuclear power
French 2050 committee will consider all nuclear options: BessonParis (Platts)- –Anna Crowley, -8 Nov 2011 A committee tasked with reviewing France’s energy supply options to 2050 will consider all options for nuclear energy, energy minister Eric Besson said Tuesday.
Besson told a Paris conference that scenarios under review included expanding the lifespans of existing reactors, “accelerating” the move towards a new generation of third- or fourth-generation nuclear reactors, a gradual reduction of nuclear’s share of the energy mix and full exit from nuclear generation. …. Continue reading
Uranium price falling – AREVA stops African project
Areva suspends uranium mine project, SMH ,November 3, 2011 – French nuclear giant Areva says it is suspending a mining project in the Central African Republic for “a year or two” because of a drop in uranium prices since the Fukushima disaster.
Work on developing the Bakouma mine, which is estimated to hold about 32,000 tonnes of uranium, has been suspended until the market value of the commodity rises again, an Areva spokesman said on Wednesday……
The price of uranium subsequently dropped by about 30 per cent, at a time when Areva was hoping for a global nuclear power renaissance.
On Wednesday the price of a pound (450 grams) of uranium was at $US52 ($A50.49), down from $US68 in March before the accident…..
Areva began development works at the mine under a deal signed in 2007 and to date has spent 106 million euros on developing the site.
The 2007 deal ended friction between Areva and the country’s authorities, who had handed mining rights to British-Canadian firm UraMin in 2006.
Areva bought out UraMin in July 2007 to the displeasure of the government, which said the “irregular” sale showed “disregard for the rights and interests” of the Central African people…..
Areva is expected to present a plan next month on a rethink of its corporate strategies in the wake of the Japanese disaster.
AREVA’s uranium mining revenues fall
Areva 9-month revenues fall 3.5 pct,
By Caroline Jacobs and Christian Plumb PARIS, Oct 27 (Reuters) – French nuclear group Areva posted a 3.5 percent decline in nine-month sales on Thursday, squeezed by weakness in its uranium mining and waste-processing businesses.
Revenues reached 5.95 billion euros ($8.4 billion) and were down 1.5 percent on a like-for-like basis, state-owned Areva said in a statement. For the third-quarter alone, revenues fell 2.9 percent to 1.95 billion euros, Areva said, without providing details about specific business lines’ performance for the period…..
Since the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima power plant in March, order cancellations have been just 301 million euros, Areva said.
Countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Italy have shelved nuclear plans after the incident, but others such as Britain, Poland or the Czech Republic said they would go ahead with the construction of new plants.
Areva is assessing what consequences Fukushima will have on its business and will announce its five-year strategy plan in December….
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/27/aereva-revenue-idUSL5E7LR5BZ20111027
At last, France reveals, and questions, the safety of its nuclear industry
institutions are showing greater boldness in convicting nuclear operators guilty of negligence or issuing reprimands and demanding immediate corrective measures from giants like EDF or Areva..
With accusing fingers increasingly pointing towards the nuclear industry, a hesitant debate is beginning to open up in France. Socialist leader Segolene Royal who was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy in France’s last presidential poll but hopes once again to be her party’s candidate, said she would close down the EPR under construction at Flamanville and completely abandon the EPR technology being pushed by Areva.
Post-Fukushima, France breaks silence on nuclear safety, The Hindu VAIJUNARAVANE, 11 Oct 11 “…….Doubts have been raised about the benefits of the EPR reactor, of which India plans to buy six. For a country as given to debate and argument as France, there has been a deafening silence surrounding the choice of nuclear as the prime source of energy. With a population of 62 million, France boasts 59 nuclear reactors — the highest per capita in the world, with over 75 per cent of its electricity coming from the power of the atom.
In the post-Fukushima period, however, that tacit silence is being broken with increasing frequency not just by anti-nuclear associations or candidates hoping to win elections but by French courts and the Nuclear Safety Authority. Continue reading
France increases fines, cracks down on anti nuclear protestors
Post-Fukushima, France breaks silence on nuclear safety, The Hindu VAIJU 
NARAVANE, 11 Oct 11 “…….France has always come down hard on any anti-nuclear protests and there has been very little debate on the decision taken in the 1950s or under the post-oil-crisis Messmer Plan of 1974, to wholeheartedly embrace nuclear energy. An appeals court in the northern city of Caen on September 27, upped the fines slapped on Greenpeace France for occupying the nuclear site at Flamanville (Normandy) where France’s first EPR reactor is under construction.
Greenpeace France will now have to pay €2,500 instead of the initial €1,500 and individual protesters will have to cough up fines of €200 each. The French electricity giant EDF, which is the constructor and future operator of the reactor, had called for damages and interest amounting to €155,000…. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2526288.ece
Delays, defects, and “social dumping” in France’s Flamanville nuclear reactor
Post-Fukushima, France breaks silence on nuclear safety The Hindu VAIJU NARAVANE, 11 Oct 11“…….Construction of the Flamanville EPR reactor which began in 2007 is experiencing significant delays with a large number of accidents including two fatalities. The EPR reactor, of which India plans to buy six, will now not be completed before 2016 at the earliest and its price tag has climbed to an estimated €7 billion per reactor of 1,650MWe capacity. Not a single EPR is as yet operational.
Of the four currently under construction, (one each in France and Finland, two in China) the Finnish reactor (construction began in August1985) is now slated to go on stream in 2013 but costs have risen from €3 billion to over €7 billion and the Finnish utility TVO is locked in costly arbitration (€2.7 billion) with Areva….. Continue reading
AREVA company convicted of radioactive water pollution
AREVA-SOCATRI was finally convicted of the offense of water pollution, in addition to his conviction for delay in reporting an incident.
Areva-Socatri convicted of water pollution: an unprecedented legal victory! , September 30, the Court of Appeal of Nîmes condemned AREVA-SOCATRI of water pollution, as a result of the appeal including the Network “Sortir du nucléaire”. This sentence follows the unprecedented radioactive leaks detected on the Tricastin nuclear site in July 2008.
Located between Valence and Avignon, the Tricastin nuclear site includes both treatment plants and four fuel nuclear power reactors in operation. SOCATRI society, located on this site, ensures the maintenance and dismantling of radioactive materials and nuclear waste treatment and industrial companies AREVA Tricastin. Continue reading
Nuclear industry winding down, just look at Flamanville
It has to be acknowledged that, irrespective of Fukushima, new nuclear build was never going to be plain sailing from a technical or financial standpoint.
Just ask EDF, the French state-controlled utility which is currently building the first new nuclear plant in that country for 15 years …
Bailing out on nuclear, The Engineer, [UK] 30 September 2011 | By Andrew Czyzewski “………according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) six developing countries interested in developing a civil nuclear programme have notified it that they have abandoned their plans….
It’s not only politicians and their subjects getting nervous though. Continue reading
Uphill struggle for French nuclear company AREVA
During her 12-year tenure, former Chief Executive Anne Lauvergeon bet on a nuclear
renaissance and loaded up the company with debt and expanded its operations. But despite the sales pitch, the nuclear renaissance never quite happened.
At Areva, New CEO Confronts a Delicate Job, WSJ, By MAX COLCHESTER And GERALDINE AMIEL, 30 Sept 11 PARIS—Areva SA’s new chief executive faces the delicate task of steering the global nuclear-engineering giant through a widespread industry slowdown. Continue reading
Nuclear Reprocessing not looking good, following France’s nuclear accident
French Nuke Accident Leads India To Reexamine Its Nuclear Ambitions, Forbes, Erica Giles, 20 Sept 11, “……..reprocessing is no silver bullet; in fact, it has created a bitter divide among nuclear experts – and not just because it can be a gateway to proliferation, as India itself so aptly demonstrated in 1974. “At this point, it’s like creationism versus evolution,” said Edwin Lyman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, indicating that in his view, the anti-reprocessing camp has science on its side.
Reprocessing via the current commercial-scale process used in France, called PUREX, recovers only a small amount of additional energy and is more expensive than using virgin uranium, he said. And instead of reducing waste, it merely changes its form. “There’s no feasible, practical way to take material from the waste and use it in a nuclear power system so you could get rid of it over any kind of reasonable time frame,” he said.
Many Indians are protesting their country’s rapid nuclear expansion, most recently exemplified by a mass fast in Tamil Nadu state against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project. But neither their concerns nor nuclear accidents are likely to alter India’s plans…. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericagies/2011/09/19/french-nuclear-explosion-causes-india-to-think-hard-about-its-nuclear-ambitions/
According to France an explosion in its nuclear re-processing plant was not a nuclear accident!
The IAEA does not appear particularly inclined to bow to French demands to classify Monday’s fatal blast as a non-nuclear industrial accident.
France in damage-limitation mode,THE HINDU, PARIS, September 13, 2011 VAIJU NARAVANE France went into damage-limitation mode following a blast at a nuclear re-processing plant on Monday which killed one person and injured four….
France is one of the world’s leading exporters of nuclear technology and authorities were quick to minimise the seriousness of the explosion. Industry Minister Eric Besson speaking to journalists described the event as “an industrial accident and not a nuclear incident”. Continue reading
1 This Month
26 September – International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
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