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Monday, October 29, 2012

Cheese or Nukes?

The French are building a new plant at Flamanville on the Normandy coast at a site with two currently operating reactors. The Areva-designed EPR is also being built at the Olkiluito site in Finland and potentially in the US, though the planned new  unit at  Calvert Cliffs has stumbled due to a provision in the US Atomic Energy Act prohibiting foreign ownership or control of a power plant licensee. Here's an EDF promotional post card of the Flamanville 3 plant under construction:


Although France produces nearly 75% of its electricity from nuclear power, President Hollande has proposed reducing that proportion to 50% by 2025. Hollande calls for closing the older Fessenheim units, while continuing the construction of Flamanville 3.  There are some signs of protest, like this playful card that my daughter spotted in a souvenir shop at Mont Saint Michel during our visit  in 2011:


You can see the play on words - so what will it be? La tome de Savoie or l'atome de Normandie?
Cheese or nukes?

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