French People to Nuclear Industry: Your Mother was a Hamster, and your Father smelt of Elderberries July 14, 2011

Get into a discussion on nuclear energy and, guaranteed, within 37 seconds, (I’ve timed this), someone will say, “What about the French? They’re completely running on nuclear power!!”

Now, basically, I think if the French want to use nuclear power, good on ’em. It’s well suited to more centralized economies like theirs, where the government will endlessly support cost overruns, delays and snafus, and limit pesky protesters and naysayers. What I really worry about is not the reactors the French have, but the ones they want to sell to Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Jordan,…..

Anyway, it seems that more and more French citizens favor making their freedom fries with non-nuclear electricity, according to Reuters:

In contrast to Germany, which said in May it would withdraw completely from nuclear energy production by 2022, France has been a strong proponent of nuclear power and the government had ruled out dropping it as an energy source. Although France’s deep dependence on nuclear makes a dramatic volte-face a massive task, with a May 2012 presidential election approaching the government may be tempted to suggest that it is considering a possible pullout. A poll last month showed three quarters of the French people interviewed wanted to withdraw from nuclear energy, against 22 percent who back the nuclear expansion programme. While the centre-right UMP party mostly supports the extension of the nuclear programme, the opposition Socialist Party has called for a moratorium on new reactors and promised a national debate on energy transition if elected in 2012.

For a much more detailed, but extremely foul mouthed and scatalogical (you have been warned) analysis of France’s latest nuclear misadventures in Finland, see below….