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France to boost its nuke industry, seeks foreign investors

France seeks foreign cash to grow nuclear sector

PARIS, Dec 14 (Reuters) By Nina Sovich – France pledged 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to support next generation reactor design and said it would seek foreign capital to back its move to the forefront of nuclear energy expansion.

The investment is part of a 35 billion-euro spending plan French President Nicolas Sarkozy Sarkozy unveiled on Monday aimed at improving France’s competitiveness. ………………. The French government, which owns majority stakes in both nuclear reactor maker Areva (CEPFi.PA) and utility giant EDF (EDF.PA), is trying to position France as the market leader in designing and running these power plants…………… To fund these costs, the French government recently asked Areva to sell its electricity business for some 4 billion euros. It has also invited foreign utilities to take stakes in new plants being built in France…………………..

Last month Proglio blasted French energy companies bidding on a contract to build nuclear power plants in Abu Dhabi for its lack of coherence.

December 15, 2009 Posted by | business and costs, climate change, France | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

AREVA falsifies the facts on nuclear power

For Copenhagen, AREVA makes the false nuclear case Beyond Nuclear 12 Dec 09 In anticipation of the Copenhagen climate conference which began this week, Areva CEO, Anne Lauvergeon, stated during a French radio interview that nuclear power “does not release CO2″ and that it “produces very little waste.”

These remarks were immediately condemned by the leading independent French radiological laboratory -CRIIRAD -who demanded that Lauvergeon take immediate steps to clean up the company’s contaminated African uranium mine sites in Gabon and Niger.

CRIIRAD also reminded Lauvergeon that (1) nuclear releases significant amounts of greenhouse gases, (2) that every stage of the nuclear fuel chain produces large quantities of radioactive wastes for which no safe storage solution has been found and (3) Areva has left populations to live on land or in dwellings contaminated by its activities.

Any decisions made at Copenhagen should not be based on erroneous information emanating from the nuclear industry, CRIIRAD said. From uranium extraction to enrichment, reprocessing and contamination of water supplies, Areva’s nuclear activities leave a virtually permanent trail of highly radioactive waste. The CRIIRAD press release is available in French and contains details of the radioactive contamination caused by Areva’s activities in France and overseas. And see also an article in English from Agence France Presse about Areva’s radioactive contamination in Gabon.

December 11, 2009 Posted by Christina MacPherson | 1 | , , , , | No Comments Yet | Edit

December 11, 2009 Posted by | climate change, France, spinbuster | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

AREVA secretly continuing nuclear waste shipments to Russia

AREVA resumes nuclear waste shipments from France to Russia Nuclear Reaction 10 Dec 09 France has sent 33,000 tonnes of nuclear waste to Russia for reprocessing since 2006?  How much of that has come back to France? A mere 3,090 tonnes. That’s less than 10%. The rest is dumped and abandoned in places like the ‘closed’ city of Seversk, the nuclear waste storage facility in Siberia. Some of it is even stored in open air car parks. This is the fabled nuclear safety we’ve heard all about. Continue reading →

December 10, 2009 Posted by | 1, France, secrets,lies and civil liberties | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

AREVA’s money troubles: drive to sell its nuclear reactors

FOCUS: Areva Still Needs Cash Despite T&D Sale
CNN Money By Geraldine Amiel, Dow Jones Newswires 4 Dec 09 PARIS – Despite selling its transmission and distribution business for EUR4.1 billion, French state-controlled nuclear engineering Areva SA ( CEI.FR) still needs billions more of funding to realize its substantial expansion program.

And to come up with the EUR7 billion or so of additional money for investment, Areva may have to sell more of its family silver, possibly as soon as 2010. “Financing remains an issue,” SGCIB’s analyst Gael de Bray said…… Continue reading →

December 5, 2009 Posted by | 1, business and costs, France | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nuclear energy heading for a shutdown?

Is nuclear energy heading for a Golden Age or a shutdown? Earth Times 30 Nov 2009 “…..incidents at France’s nuclear power stations are increasing, and the industry is currently going through a bad patch, just as it appeared poised to enter a Golden Age. Continue reading →

December 3, 2009 Posted by | 1, business and costs, France | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

AREVA’s new nuclear reactors’ safety flaws

Nuclear expert warns of safety flaws in AREVA’s EPR | ecoficial 30 Nov 09 An independent expert, commissioned by Greenpeace, has concluded that two nuclear reactors, currently under construction in Finland and France, suffer from serious safety flaws. Continue reading →

December 1, 2009 Posted by | 1, France, safety | , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

UK’s new nuclear plants – future indefinite

New UK nuclear stations unlikely to be on time

BBC Newsnight 25 Nov 09 By Meirion Jones A Newsnight investigation suggests that UK government plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations to fill the energy gap by 2020 are wildly optimistic. Continue reading →

November 28, 2009 Posted by | 1, business and costs, UK | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Doubts about new nuclear push

What nuclear ‘renaissance’? ‘Major concerns’ about new nuclear reactor designs
Greenpeace 28 Nov 09 Do you know many companies like the nuclear industry who have only one product in their catalogue? There was Ford and the Model T, but that was 100 years ago, and they at least knew how to build and sell it. Continue reading →

November 28, 2009 Posted by | 1, France, spinbuster | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

France’s EPR nuclear reactors are not safe

Interview with Giuseppe Onufrio, Director of Greenpeace Italia. 22 Nov 09 Giuseppe Onufrio: “In Finland and in France they are busy building these new power stations known as Epr, which are a French design. In this regard, a few months ago we discovered that these power stations have never been approved due to the fact that their emergency systems do not meet the minimum nuclear safety requirements, Continue reading →

November 23, 2009 Posted by | France, safety | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

USA would be wise not to follow France’s nuclear path

French Nuclear Energy Policy – a cake the US may do well not to consume too much of Treehugger, by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 11.22.09 “………………. US politicians now cite the French energy policy example with excitement; claiming that nation’s high reliance on nuclear power is exemplary. Continue reading →

November 23, 2009 Posted by | climate change, France | , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ship board anti-nuclear protest

Greenpeace boards reactor equipment ship( Google News AFP) – 17 Nov 09 COPENHAGEN — Six Greenpeace activists Monday boarded a ship carrying French-made steam turbines bound for a new nuclear power station in Finland, Continue reading →

November 18, 2009 Posted by | 1, Finland, politics | , , , , , | Leave a comment

The myth of France’s ‘nuclear solution’ to climate change

French Nuclear Madness won’t save the climate Baltic Sea, 7th Space  International 16 Nov 09 — Today six activists from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise boarded the cargo ship Happy Ranger in the Fehmarn Belt between Denmark and Germany. The activists are carrying banners reading “Nuclear Madness, made in France”. Continue reading →

November 16, 2009 Posted by | 1, Finland, spinbuster | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Safety, cost, wastes, – nuclear industry fast losing credibility

The reactor relapse takes 3 hits to the head
by Harvey Wasserman November 12, 2009


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The much-hyped “Renaissance” of atomic power has taken three devastating hits with potentially fatal consequences.

The usually supine Nuclear Regulatory Commission has told Toshiba’s Westinghouse Corporation that its “standardized” AP-1000 design might not withstand hurricanes, tornadoes or earthquakes.  Continue reading →

November 13, 2009 Posted by | safety, USA | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Are modern nuclear reactors safe?

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The economic downside to nuclear energy GREEN>BLORGE by Susan Wilson 10 Nov 09

“……….Are new modern nuclear reactors safe?”  The difficulty in this question is finding a nuclear reactor that has been built within the last 10 years.  According to Der Spiegel there aren’t any new reactors built within the last ten years that are up and running.  Current projects in Finland and France are experiencing severe problems with the construction and the design.  Continue reading →

November 13, 2009 Posted by | 2 WORLD, safety | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nuclear Power- a (French) Socialist Solution

Nuclear Socialism, YGLESIAS 7 November 09 the American right’s strangely passionate love affair with nuclear power and the impact it’s having on the climate debate in congress. What I find especially odd about it is that it’s so at odds with American conservatives’ ardor for the free market. Continue reading →

November 7, 2009 Posted by | 1, business and costs, France | , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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