Why is nuclear power so successful and popular in France?

Tanada	Post subject: Re: Why is nuclear power so successful and popular in France? Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:47 am
Expert Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2005 2:00 am Posts: 4766 Location: West shore Lake Eire, MI, USA	Aaron wrote: Quote: The French State still owns 79% of Areva – the company supplying the Finnish reactor,which also operates the French reprocessing plant at La Hague. Having unnecessarily givenlarge contracts to Areva over past years to reprocess its spent fuel, EdF has accumulated over80 tons of plutonium, and vast quantities of nuclear waste at the reprocessing plant at LaHague. So it is now confronted with huge liabilities, but insufficient funds to cover them.The Court of Accounts estimated France’s nuclear liabilities at Eur 71-billion, with Eur 48-billion of that belonging to EdF. There are also huge uncertainties attached to these liabilities.For example, the cost of a potential deep disposal facility for nuclear waste could be between40% and 230% higher than allowed for by EdF, according to radioactive waste managementagency Andra. (35). It appears, therefore, that EdF currently plans to fund only around half ofFrance’s nuclear liabilities. Nuclear power is a failed technology which has failed to deliver. It has squanderedunparalleled, unstinting support from taxpayers around the globe leaving them with burdensthat may last for millennia. The idea that such an industry should be resuscitated with orwithout even more public subsidy is absurd. http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/reports/Nuclear_Subsidies.pdf That's just funny given that Edf turns a large profit every year selling electricity and that money is turned in to the French General Fund to be spent on other government expenditures. _________________ Always appeal to a man's enlightened self interest, you can trust him to look out for himself honestly, It's when you appeal to his Honor or the Common Good that he stops paying attention.
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pstarr	Post subject: Re: Why is nuclear power so successful and popular in France? Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:52 am
Expert Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2004 2:00 am Posts: 9065 Location: Behind the Redwood Curtain	Why is nuclear power so successful and popular in France? Can we now safely assume the correct nswer is SOCIALISM? _________________ yesplease wrote: "Odds are economic growth will start to even out as population reaches it's top of ~10+ trillion" yesplease wrote: "What we're seeing, adding about a billion people every thirteen years or so, is linear population growth."
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Tanada	Post subject: Re: Why is nuclear power so successful and popular in France? Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:55 am
Expert Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2005 2:00 am Posts: 4766 Location: West shore Lake Eire, MI, USA	pstarr wrote: Why is nuclear power so successful and popular in France? Can we now safely assume the correct nswer is SOCIALISM? I think in this case it is, the electricity industry is government owned and operated. Isn't that the definition of Socialism? _________________ Always appeal to a man's enlightened self interest, you can trust him to look out for himself honestly, It's when you appeal to his Honor or the Common Good that he stops paying attention.
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Aaron	Post subject: Re: Why is nuclear power so successful and popular in France? Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 12:13 pm
800 lb Gorilla Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:00 am Posts: 6868 Location: Houston	Tanada wrote: Aaron wrote: Quote: The French State still owns 79% of Areva – the company supplying the Finnish reactor,which also operates the French reprocessing plant at La Hague. Having unnecessarily givenlarge contracts to Areva over past years to reprocess its spent fuel, EdF has accumulated over80 tons of plutonium, and vast quantities of nuclear waste at the reprocessing plant at LaHague. So it is now confronted with huge liabilities, but insufficient funds to cover them.The Court of Accounts estimated France’s nuclear liabilities at Eur 71-billion, with Eur 48-billion of that belonging to EdF. There are also huge uncertainties attached to these liabilities.For example, the cost of a potential deep disposal facility for nuclear waste could be between40% and 230% higher than allowed for by EdF, according to radioactive waste managementagency Andra. (35). It appears, therefore, that EdF currently plans to fund only around half ofFrance’s nuclear liabilities. Nuclear power is a failed technology which has failed to deliver. It has squanderedunparalleled, unstinting support from taxpayers around the globe leaving them with burdensthat may last for millennia. The idea that such an industry should be resuscitated with orwithout even more public subsidy is absurd. http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/reports/Nuclear_Subsidies.pdf That's just funny given that Edf turns a large profit every year selling electricity and that money is turned in to the French General Fund to be spent on other government expenditures. Sure it does... With taxpayer funding you always "turn a profit". _________________ America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. Abraham Lincoln
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Arthur75

Post subject: Re: Why is nuclear power so successful and popular in France? Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:40 pm

Tar Sands Joined: Sun Mar 29, 2009 4:10 am Posts: 35 Location: Lutèce

pstarr wrote: Why is nuclear power so successful and popular in France? Can we now safely assume the correct nswer is SOCIALISM? I'm not sure you can really call that Socialism ... First of all a lot of these big "national enterprises" , EDF for electricity , SNCF for rail date back from right after WWII or just before for SNCF, France Telecom (ex PTT) even before, and are all related somehow to "infrastructures". And since the war, there as not been any "socialist labeled" government before 1981 and Mitterrand's election, it was either "Gaullist" in power or "center right" Now it is true that there is a strong "services publics" tradition associated to the "corps de l'Etat" and major engineering (and administration) schools as stated above. But this tradition is somehow down for quite some time already, the Anglo Saxon "liberalism" (European meaning) having taken its toll on this glorious devoted nationalist spirit ... And in concrete terms, all these markets are being liberalized these days (EDF has been splited between the network and producers part, same for SNCF (network and trains operators), telecoms deregulated like for AT&T at about same time, etc) To tell the truth I'm not sure the big "no government everything private" dogma means much when you talk about infrstructures ... And for instance, whereas in France and other European countries many freeways are privately operated (with tolls), the US highways infrastructure is what ? A socialist shithole ? What was exactly AT&T before the deregulation ? Is AT&T eating most of what was deregulated right now or not ? As to EDF, the CEA, or Areva making or not a profit, yes they do (maybe not for the CEA)