from The House Magazine, 24 November 2008
If you thought all was rosy with nuclear power in France, think again. Faith in the country’s nuclear competence has been badly shaken by a spate of accidents and by long delays in the construction of a flagship reactor.
In perhaps the most serious accident, nearly a hundred workers were contaminated with radioactive cobalt after an old pipe leaked. It happened on 23 July 2008 at a major nuclear complex at Tricastin, near Avignon in the south of France.
At the same site just over two weeks earlier 75 kilograms of uranium leaked from another broken pipe, contaminating two local rivers. A ban was imposed on fishing and waters sports by the French safety authorities.
These two accidents, combined with other less serious incidents, have severely dented local support for Tricastin. So much so, that the local wine association decided to dispense with the label ‘Côteaux du Tricastin’, and name its wine ‘Grignan’ after another nearby area.
In the same month as the two accidents at Tricastin, two other nuclear plants in France also suffered mishaps. Another old pipe at Romans-sur-Isere was discovered to be leaking uranium, and 15 workers at Saint-Alban were exposed to excess radioactivity.
The French Independent Commission on Research and Information on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD) pointed out that the number of incidents and the extent of the contamination were unprecedented. “This is the first time I have seen so many people being contaminated in such a short period of time,” the commission’s head, Corinne Castanier, told Reuters.
Plants belonging to both of France’s two nuclear giants, Electricité de France (EDF) and Areva, were involved in the accidents. Both companies, which have major international businesses, are majority owned by the French government.
In September EDF agreed to take over British Energy, the company that runs most of Britain’s nuclear power plants. Areva is one of the the main international bidders to build a new generation of nuclear reactors across the UK.
Unfortunately Areva’s flagship project to build an advanced European Pressurised Reactor at Olkiluoto in Finland has not exactly been progressing smoothly. After three years, a series of technical and other problems have delayed construction by more than two years and increased costs by €1.5 billion, sending the project at least 50% over budget.
Relying on Areva to build reactors in the UK would mean risking a repeat of the “disastrous” experience in Finland, claimed Mycle Schneider, a nuclear consultant based in Paris. If the reactors are run by EDF through British Energy, UK taxpayers could end up having to bail out the French state company, he warned.
France is seen as a world leader on nuclear power because it has 58 nuclear reactors producing about 80% of the country’s electricity, a higher proportion than any other country. But that doesn’t, as nuclear proponents have sometimes suggested, make it energy independent.
Schneider pointed out that nuclear electricity makes up only 18% of all the energy used by French consumers, with the rest for transport and heating coming from oil, gas and coal, some of which is imported. The uranium used to fuel nuclear reactors is also all imported, he said.
France has a problem with its over-dependence on nuclear power, Schneider argued, caused by an “autocratic” decision-making process and a lack of democratic oversight. Historically, at least three-quarters of the public expenditure on energy research and development has been swallowed up by nuclear power.
Surprisingly, perhaps, many people in France seem to agree. When the European Commission polled French citizens in 2007, it found that 59% were in favour of cutting back on nuclear power, while only 28% wanted to increase it. So even in the most nuclear of countries, a clear majority thinks there are too many reactors.
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