France What's New

Study finds childhood leukemia doubled around French reactors

2012-01-13T15:05:33Z

A major epidemiological study just published in the January 2012 edition of The International Journal of Cancer indicates there is “a possible excess risk” of acute leukemia among children living in close vicinity to French nuclear power plants (NPP). The study called for an “investigation for potential risk factors related to the vicinity of NPP, and collaborative analysis of multisite studies conducted in various countries.”

The study found a doubling of occurrence of childhood leukemia between the years of 2002-2007 among children under 5 years living within 5 km of nuclear plants – similar to the findings of the German 2008 study by the Cancer Registry in Mainz which found an association between the nearness of residence to nuclear power plants and the risk of childhood leukemia.

The epidemiological study was conducted by a team from the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) and the National Register of hematological diseases of children in Villejuif. The results marked a surprising and encouraging change at IRSN which had endeavored to discredit earlier French epidemiological studies that had shown an impact of nuclear facilities on health.

France admits nuclear security lax after Greenpeace activists enter plant

2011-12-07T02:58:26Z

Interior Minister M. Claude Gueant admitted that security at France's nuclear plants is lax after Greenpeace activists scaled the walls of a nuclear plant. Greenpeace activists gained entry to the plant at Nogent-sur-Seine at dawn on December 5 and managed to climb the dome of one of its two reactors "in order to spread the message: 'Safe nuclear does not exist.'" “The aim is to show the vulnerability of French nuclear installations, and how easy it is to get to the heart of a reactor,” said Sophia Majnoni, a Greenpeace nuclear expert.

Intense protests against latest France to Germany radioactive waste train

2011-12-07T02:55:49Z

French "red green" alliance advocates near 50% nuclear shutdown by 2050

2011-11-18T14:37:20Z

The two French opposition parties - the Socialists and the Greens - have agreed to campaign for the shutdown of 24 of France's 58 nuclear reactors by 2025 and the immediate halt of the oldest plant at Fessenheim. The Greens favor a complete halt of France’s nuclear reactors, which provide more than three quarters of the country’s power, while Socialist candidate Francois Hollande has called for the lowering of France’s dependence on atomic power to 50 percent by 2025. The announcement caused stocks of the French utility, EDF, to slide as much as 6.4 percent to 19.40 euros, the lowest since Sept. 26 making it the worst-performing stock in Europe’s Stoxx 600 Utilities Index on November16.

EDF fined millions and its senior staff sentenced to years in prison for spying on Greenpeace France

2011-11-12T02:03:51Z

Greenpeace International has blogged about the larger implications of a French court's conviction of Electricite de France (EDF) and two its senior staff for "complicity in computer piracy": hiring a private investigator to hack into Greenpeace computers and steal 1,400 documents. The court has fined EDF 1.5 million Euros ($2 million), ordered it to pay 500,000 Euros ($682,000) in damages to Greenpeace France, and an additional 50,000 Euros ($68,200) to the Greenpeace campaigner whose computer was hacked and confidential documents stolen. The court has sentenced two senior EDF officials, and two officials at the private investigation company, to 2-3 years of jail time each, as well as fining three of them thousands of Euros each. World Nuclear News has reported on this story.

Deadly explosion at French radioactive waste incineration and "recycling" facility

2011-09-18T01:53:23Z

News is coming in about an explosion at Marcoule, a nuclear processing plant in southern France. One worker has died and four have been injured according to official reports. The explosion appears to have occurred in a furnace at Marcoule in a radioactive waste treatment plant at the Centraco center which is owned by Socodei, a subsidiary of EDF. Beyond Nuclear is following developments. Officials claim there has been no release of radioactivity although reports say there is a possibility for releases. Given "official" statements during the French Tricastin accident and, of course, Fukushima, Beyond Nuclear is conferring with colleagues in France to learn more and break through any opacity. Marcoule processes radioactive waste. It is also the site of a MOX (mixed oxide plutonium-uranium) fuel manufacturing facility - MELOX.

Update on September 12, 2011 by admin

modify remove

CRIIRAD, the independent radiological French monitoring laboratory already had monitors in place and so far is not seeing unusual levels of radioactive aerosols as a result of the explosion. Beyond Nuclear is monitoring their updates (in French) here.

Update on September 13, 2011 by admin

modify remove

No further updates on the aftermath of the explosion at the Marcoule facility have come in. The explosion took place in one of the ovens of the incinerator that melts low-level radioactive detritus mostly emanating from the country's 58 reactors. Nevertheless, the concerns - and the potential for a devastating outcome as a result of an accident at the multi-facility nuclear site, serve as a reminder of the risks that continue to be taken by prolonging the use of nuclear energy as an electricity source.

Update on September 17, 2011 by admin

modify remove

The Independent of London also reported on this story.

French EPR even more behind while costs double

2011-07-28T12:44:50Z

New records set for Flamanville: Wednesday, 20 July, EDF announced that the reactor would only come into service in 2016 (instead of 2014), and the cost of construction will now be €6 billion, double the price originally announced. To justify this additional cost, EDF argues that this reactor is the first model of its kind. They seem to have conveniently forgotten that Flamanville 3 was preceded by the EPR at Olkiluoto in Finland, which also combines 3 ½ years behind schedule and whose costs have jumped to €5.7 billion, at the expense of the French taxpayer.

French customs officials seize radioactive Japanese tea at border

2011-07-22T17:50:30Z

The Voice of Russia reports that the first radioactive foodstuffs from Japan -- tea, exceeding "permissible" standards two-fold -- to be detected by French customs officials has been seized at the border and will be "destroyed" (radioactivity cannot be "destroyed" -- it will likely be dumped somewhere). The radioactively contaminated tea is reportedly from Shizuoka Prefecture, around 100 miles southwest of Tokyo, which is itself 150 miles southwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This shows that the nuclear catastrophe's hazardous radioactive fallout has travelled far from the three melted down reactor cores and boiling high-level radioactive waste storage pools.

Even France to prioritize renewable over nuclear energy

2011-07-11T18:04:24Z

French ecology minister, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, has announced plans for France to step up its investments in renewable energy, throwing into doubt future nuclear power expansion in the country. France gets 80% of its electricity from its 58 reactors. "Our objective is to rebalance the energy mix in favour of renewables,” Kosciusko-Morizet told the Financial Times. Regarding the future of nuclear, she told the FT: "We are investing in [nuclear] safety, not in growth objectives as we are doing in renewables." France is launching a bid for five new offshore wind farms.

Sign the petition for a referendum on nuclear in France

2011-07-07T17:57:08Z

They did it in Italy; now it has to happen in France. A staggering 95% of Italians voting in their June referendum supported a permanent ban on nuclear power in Italy. Please sign the French petition to demand a similar referendum in France.