http://www.orange.fr/bin/frame.cgi?u=ht ... l-EPR.html (in the article = very nice diagram explaining the functioning of the EPR):
Saturday March 17, 2007 Anti-nuclear parades to challenge candidates on the EPR
PARIS (AFP), 08:49
© AFP
Demonstration of anti EPR activists on March 16, 2007 in Marseille Environmental defense organizations call on Saturday to parade in five cities of France to challenge the presidential candidates on the EPR project, the third generation nuclear reactor in Flamanville ( Channel), which they consider "useless and dangerous".
The demonstrators, who intend to influence the electoral debate five weeks before the first round of the presidential election, must meet at 14 p.m. in Lille, Lyon, Rennes, Strasbourg and Toulouse at the call of the Stop-EPR collective, which groups nearly a thousand associations including the Sortir du nuclear network, Greenpeace, Agir pour l'Environnement, Friends of the Earth, WWF and the Climate Action Network.
For the group, "the presidential candidates must commit now to abandon the EPR project which would mark the revival of nuclear power for the next hundred years". Construction of the new plant, on which the Nuclear Safety Authority gave a favorable opinion in early March, is due to start in December 2007.
The NGOs accuse the State of being ready to invest in the EPR at least 3,3 billion euros when, according to Greenpeace, "France does not need it to meet its energy consumption".
The alter-globalist José Bové, Dominique Voynet (Greens) and Olivier Besancenot (LCR) expressed their opposition to the project. Ségolène Royal (PS) and François Bayrou (UDF) deplored the absence of a real debate on the project and wanted a re-examination of the thinking, like Nicolas Hulot who wants a moratorium. On the other hand, Nicolas Sarkozy argued that renewable energies alone cannot replace nuclear.
In France, nuclear energy provides 78% of electricity production (in 2005), compared to 16% worldwide and 32% in Europe. According to the 2007 Eurobarometer which measures the moods of European citizens, 61% of them want this share to decrease, and 59% of the French.
© AFP
Sketch of the EPR The EPR, designed for a minimum lifespan of 60 years, is intended to take over from a good part of the 58 current reactors, most of which were commissioned in the 1980s. allow to make the link with the future generation (the fourth) which will not be ready until 2030. For its designers - a Franco-German consortium Siemens / Framatome-ANP (Areva) - the EPR will allow better use of fuel, a multiplication of safety systems and a lower production of waste, which is disputed by anti-nuclear companies who see it as an already obsolete technology.
Supporters of nuclear power also argue for its virtually zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emission rate at a time when the EU commits to the fight against climate change by setting itself a 20% reduction in its emissions. GHG by 2020. "Considering that a quarter of humanity does not have access to electricity, how can we both increase energy production and reduce emissions? CO2 (carbon dioxide emitted in quantity by fossil fuels, petroleum and coal in particular)? "Asks Bertrand Barré, professor emeritus at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences and Techniques and president of the International Council of Nuclear Societies.
The fact remains that "the share of renewable energies has steadily declined in recent years in France, while it has increased in countries which previously relied on fossil fuels", notes Gaétan Fauvet of the Renewable Energy Observatory. Conversely, "among our European neighbors, the turnover of renewables reached nearly 40 billion euros in 2005 and doubled every three years", underlines Yannick Jadot, of Greenpeace.
Sarkozy is the only one not to align with Hulot. In fact he is the least green of all, although he signed the NH pact. : evil:.