Tuareg and uranium: AREVA’s grip on Niger
“You can’t just fight against nuclear power plants and waste repositories,” he said. “If you want to kill the tree, kill the roots”. He was referring to the uranium mines.
Uranium Mining in Niger ‘Tuareg Activist Takes on French Nuclear Company’ The Blogger: 2 April 2010, “……..A total of 80,000 people live in the two cities Areva created in the desert to service the mines. There are no paved roads, but there is plenty of reddish-brown dust, which penetrates into every crack and pore. Well water is radioactively contaminated, and precious fossil groundwater is used in the uranium ore processing plant. The region’s nomads are finding fewer and fewer pastures for their cattle, and people are affected by fatal illnesses.
Citizens’ organizations critical of Areva claim that the little money the company pays to the Niger state remains in the capital or simply ends up in the pockets of family members of the longstanding president. When Alhacen is asked what the mine has done for people, he says: “Nothing — except radiation, which will be here for thousands of years”. Continue reading
Scandalous and continuing legacy of uranium mining in Niger
Uranium Mining in Niger ‘Tuareg Activist Takes on French Nuclear Company’, The Blogger, 2 April 2010,“……….Uranium from Niger has served as a fuel for Europe’s energy supply for 40 years. But unlike Saudi Arabia, Niger has arguably reaped little but misery in return.The country in Africa’s Sahel zone is one of the world’s least-developed nations. One in four children dies before the age of five.The conditions in Niger are one of the dirty sides of supposedly clean nuclear energy. The activities there are well hidden from the outside world: Continue reading
U.S Nuclear Loan Guarantee to go to France’s AREVA?
The first $2 billion will be allocated to Areva for “front-end nuclear fuel facilities.”
Areva and USEC could get loan guarantees , The Energy Collective, by Dan Yuman, 29 March 2010, DOE runs concept up flagpole with House Appropriations Committee he Chillicothe Gazette, a southern Ohio newspaper, reports March 27 that Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu told the House Appropriations Committee this week he wants to give $2 billion loan guarantees to both USEC and Areva for new uranium enrichment plants.
At the same time Steve Isakowitz, DOE’s Chief Financial Officer, also reportedly sent a letter to Sen. Jeff Bingaman, (D-NM), Chairman of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee.
In it he said the agency will use $4 billion in loan guarantee authority split two ways. The first $2 billion will be allocated to Areva for “front-end nuclear fuel facilities.” The other $2 billion will be used for “innovative technologies.”
Uranium mining companies flock like vultures to exploited Niger
Niger coup: Good for Tuareg rebels, bad for uranium investors, The Christian Science Monitor 23 March 2010, The military junta announced it will audit all uranium exploration permits awarded before last month’s Niger coup. Evidence has emerged that the permits enriched the ousted president and devastated the Tuareg population……, foreign investors from China, Australia, South Africa, America, and Canada have flocked to the landlocked Saharan state. Continue reading
France’s foreign policy: SELL NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY
France seeks to pull nuclear champions into line | TopNews Arab Emirates, by Akilah Amiri , 03/18/2010 , The government has been proposing a high level authority or committee for enhancing nuclear program and tapping rising opportunities across the World. The committee will be directly under the Prime Minister and will report to the President.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has been always called for tapping export opportunities available in the World given to France’s expertise in the nuclear energy sector. The country has started to incorporate nuclear energy sector as a leading element in the French foreign policy. However, the country has been experiencing high competition from the rivals due to involvement of some degree of diplomatic pressure by respective governments.The government is concerned over Areva’s failure to get key contract in Abu Dhabi last year. Critics have now started to raise questions on the authority given to the state run firm.
France seeks to pull nuclear champions into line | TopNews Arab Emirates
Sarkozy pushing unsafe nuclear industry to Italy
The safe French nuclear is a Government joke. Try and put the words France “nuclear accidents” into Google. You get about 28,000 results. Nuclear accidents in France are no longer news.
Beppe Grillo’s Blog: Nuclear dwarves, 17 March 2010, “…….If the nuclear “picciotto” {rank and file mafioso} in Italy is Berlusconi, its instigator is Sarkozy. The greatest pusher of nuclear power stations in the world. And thus it is with joy that I read the news of the electoral collapse of the “Transalpine Carlànano”. One dwarf attracts another…. Sarkozy could lose in the whole of France at the second round…. Continue reading
Depressing outlook for uranium sales: AREVA cuts back production
Waiting for Uranium Prices to Rise, By Melissa Pistilli Uranium Investing News, 15 March.2010, AREVA May Cut Production Depressing uranium prices have forced French uranium miner AREVA to plan a review of its projects, which may lead to a 20 per cent cut in its 2012 output target.
Last September, the company pegged its 2012 production number at 12,000 tonnes of U308, but now says uranium prices are too low to make production costs economical. Continue reading
Nuclear Colonialism: Selling nukes to India, etc
It’s a sad thing, that with all their energy and intelligence, the “developing world”, the “Third World” seem intent on copying the “First” and “Second” worlds, no matter whether this is a good idea or not.
So – the “First” and “Second ” worlds – (Britain, Europe – USA, Canada, Australia) – found out how bad cigarettes, asbestos and nuclear power are. So – what do they do? Now sell them to the Third World.
Colonialism all over again!
France’s Sarkozy keen to sell nuclear reactors, but just to help poor countries!
+jordanFrench President Sarkozy Says Nuclear Power Key To Economic Growth, Clean Environment, Examiner.com March 9, Examiner, Michael Zey “…In his speech Sarkozy reiterated France’s support for the continued development of nuclear energy throughout the world. However, Sarkozy made an even more important pronouncement: aggressive development of technologies such as nuclear power is key to lifting the developing nations out of poverty and increasing the net wealth of the planet…..Of course, the French president’s own candidate for best new nuclear plant design is the one France’s own Areva has developed. Areva has designed the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR), a third-generation reactor design that France considers the most advanced in the world.
+jordanFrench President Sarkozy Says Nuclear Power Key To Economic Growth, Clean Environment
France taking a moral posture on its nuclear sales pitch
French PM: EPR Reactor Is World’s Safest In Its Class – WSJ.com, By Adam Mitchell Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES PARIS (Dow Jones) 10 March 2010, –France’s flagship EPR-type nuclear reactor is the world’s safest in its class and the French nuclear-safety arrangements are the most complete in the world, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday.Fillon’s speech to a nuclear conference contrasts with recent allegations by an anti-nuclear group, Sortir du Nucleaire, which cast aspersions on the EPR-type reactor’s safety….
The prime minister also said that France ….. has a “responsibility” to promote civil nuclear technology around the world.
UPDATE: French PM: EPR Reactor Is World’s Safest In Its Class – WSJ.com
AREVA warns on nuclear industry safety shortcuts
The conference took place at the headquarters of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).Speaking to the conference, Areva Chief Executive, Anne Lauvergeon, said: “We cannot see a two-track nuclear industry develop, with a low-cost one for some and high standards for others.”….
United States Deputy Secretary of Energy, Daniel Poneman, who also attended the OECD conference, said there could be no compromise on safety at nuclear plants.
“We still must focus on security. A nuclear accident anywhere is a nuclear accident everywhere,” he said.
No “two-track” nuclear industry, warns Areva | Business News | Energy Digital
Sarkozy getting desperate to sell off France’s costly nukes?
costs of nuclear plants have been “systematically underestimated” by governments worldwide for decades.
Nuclear energy gets new French-driven boost, (philstar.com) March 09, 2010 PARIS (AP) – Poor countries need nuclear power, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday, urging rich lenders to help pay for a global nuclear expansion in the interests of fighting climate change and feeding the growing world hunger for energy……
His tantalizing vision of nuclear reactors dotting the horizon won over international energy officials from India to Brussels and French executives eager to market their expertise abroad, all present at a Paris conference yesterday.
Some experts, however, say Sarkozy’s push is opening the door to risks that deadly nuclear technology gets into the wrong hands, and warn consumers to pay attention to the staggering price tag of potential nuclear energy growth — up to $3.9 trillion worldwide by 2050…….
Mycle Schneider, an independent researcher on France’s nuclear industry, warned that costs of nuclear plants have been “systematically underestimated” by governments worldwide for decades.
He warned that the nuclear push was premature, since many small countries where France is marketing technology don’t even have large enough electricity grids to support a nuclear reactor.
US Dept of Energy close to awarding loan guarantee to French nuclear power company
Bloody coup in Niger – all about uranium
Uranium Fueling Niger Coup? By Melissa Pistilli- Uranium Investing News, 23 Feb 2010 Last week in Niger, a military junta led by Platoon Comander Salou Djibo calling itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD) launched a bloody coup against the elected government of President Tandja Mamadou…. Continue reading
AREVA’s deceptive nuclear spin
AREVA tells only half the story, NUCLEAR REACTION, 24 Feb 2010, “….it’s business as usual at AREVA’s mines in Niger despite the military coup that took place in the country last week.The industry also needs to show us all that it can deal with the highly radiaoctive waste that nuclear reactors produce in a safe, clean fashion. AREVA in particularly are singularly failing in that regard. Again, is the implication that we shouldn’t worry or care about wat happens at end of the nuclear chain? Continue reading
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