French greens call for end to nuclear energy

[Fledermaus]

French green groups renewed a call on Saturday for France to end its dependence on nuclear power, saying a radiation leak at a Japanese atomic power plant showed there were no safety guarantees in the industry.

The Japanese Daiichi 1 facility north of Tokyo started leaking radiation after an explosion blew the roof off the plant that had been shaken in a massive earthquake on Friday, raising fears of a meltdown.

French officials were due to meet to discuss the situation and possible precautionary measures, but green groups said it was time to dump a technology that had led to the worst civilian nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/us-france-nuclear-idUSTRE72B2JJ20110312

[FBaggins]

1. Good luck with that.

"French greens call for an end to electricity"

The amount of nuclear-generated electricity in France is roughly equal to all of the electricity that France consumes.

[Fledermaus]

2. Where's the Corium now JA?

[FBaggins]

3. Did you just learn a new word?

We don't even know there is one at this point.

And it hardly changes the point. France doesn't have an option of leaving nuclear power at this point.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. Nor does Japan

[FBaggins]

5. For somewhat different reasons and to a lesser degree, but yes.

Japan doesn't have many attractive alternatives. It isn't like they have lots of coal or gas.

They have some potential for offshore wind and were reportedly ramping that up rapidly... but I think that the plans included about enough new offshore wind by 2020 to replace the smallest of the six reactors at the plant in question.

A great idea... but not going to get you where you need to go... and they don't have much room for wind and solar onshore.