Publication Laka-library:
Crisis in the french nuclear industry
| Author | François Nectoux, Greenpeace |
| Date | 1991 |
| Classification | 2.02.0.00/12 (FRANCE - GENERAL) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
FOREWORD The French nuclear programme is going through a deep crisis. The seriousness of the situation, emphasised by a number of recent official reports, is not yet fully perceived abroad. In the UK, for instance, the French nuclear programme is still seen as a model of engineering excellence and cost effectiveness. Not so long ago, Mr Cecil Parkinson MP, then Secretary of State for Energy, stated in a radio interview that the Central Electricity Generating Board's (CEGB) intended Pressurised Water Reactor programme (so hopelessly uneconomical that it was to be curtailed soon afterwards in order to save the electricity privatisation scheme) would be based "on the very successful French industry" (1). Meanwhile, the French nuclear industry has recently had a dismal economic performance, with Electricite de France (EDF) making considerable losses and finding itself unable to reduce its huge financial debts. Furthermore, its reputation for technological excellence has been weakened by a spate of serious incidents, especially in 1989, highlighting important safety shortcomings and generic defects on French PWR nuclear plants. Industrial firms, which have been the backbone of the French programme, are restructuring themselves away from nuclear activities, and thousands of jobs have already been shed in the process. Some of the most far-reaching technological choices (such as the Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) and the Magnesium Oxide (MOx) nuclear fuel manufacturing system) are now proving to be costly 'white elephants'. At the same time, the confidence of the French public in the nuclear sector is reaching an all-time low. The government itself has recently been criticised in official reports for its lack of direction, and serious disputes have erupted between the government and some of the main firms in the sector (EDF, Compagnie Générale Electrique and so on), concerning, for instance, their own corporate structure.
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