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France to invest 1 billion euros in nuclear energy

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"there is no alternative to nuclear energy"

This is foreboding.

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Serrano, why do you take out words from his statement? He said: "there is no alternative to nuclear energy TODAY.” and he is right.

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France has forever thumbed their noses at the world when it comes to nuclear power. Why stop now? On another article I left a comment re. an e-book I downloaded for free and read that quantifies the power available from all of the other sources of alternate energy. At the current time (as Sarkozy admits), there are no viable alternatives to oil and nuclear power. That will eventually change, and it will likely be pushed forward by the Fukushima Disaster, but TODAY we need nuclear and oil, as much as we may dislike these sources.

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Watch the world beat a path to France's door as outer space nuclear waste disposal using electrically launched vehicles powered by their nuclear grid.

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Well, if France has any nuclear accidents, the prevailing winds... (anyone mention wind power around here? no?) ... will blow the radiation clouds over Germany, Luxembourg, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the UK, not to mention Poland and Russia.

Jason, are you saying France will be the first to take the risk of launching nasty stuff upwards?

Who will it fall on when the rocket fails.

Surely rockets cannot be made as safe as a 'safe' nuclear power station?

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For once I agree totally with Sarkozy. Bravo to the French for deciding against throwing out the baby with the bath water like other countries...

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It has to be expected, that a sales man for nuclear power is saying such things. Until recently he wanted to sell nuclear power plants to Gaddafi in Libya.

The new french reactors seem to be much safer than the ageing fleet of US reactors, but they cost too much, even before including the cost for waste storage and insurance. For the money not spend on these expensive new reactors, future investments can be made in renewables, smart grid, energy saving, etc.

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The tech is not quite there and France need to make enough power to make up Germany's deficiency. The extra costs can be passed along to them. Germany will be at the mercy of not just the Russians for gas but the French for power.

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@YuriOtani The tech is developing rapidly while you are promoting a can't-do attitude. Are you saying the 'tech' for energy saving is not there?

Europe has a common electricity market, in which every country imports and exports. France and Germany have both overcapacities. Even recently, when only 4 of the 17 reactors were online, Germany produced enough electricity for its own demand. However some of that electricity was more expensive than French offers for electricity.

The german pro-nuclear lobby's spin about imports from France is being repeated over and over in the media.

Even in 2011 so far Germany has exported more electricity than imported.

Germans at the mercy of the French for power? They are close partners, but disagree on nuclear power.

During heatwaves in the summer Germany is exporting a lot of electicity to France, because rivers get too hot and nuclear plants have to shut down for lack of cooling water.

By the way recent opinion polls suggest that a majority of the French want to phase out nuclear.

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Greta12

France and Germany have both overcapacities. Even recently, when only 4 of the 17 reactors were online, Germany produced enough electricity for its own demand.

Where are you getting this information besides your imagination? Germany is the fifth largest economy and ranks roughly the same in energy consumption per capita. From everything I'm reading online Germany imports two-thirds of the energy it consumes. In fact according to the linked article Germany is now importing double the electricity it used to import from France because its nuclear power plants are off-line and that Germany has gone from net exporter to net importer of power due to the same reason. Got anything other than opinions and unfactual anecdotes?

http://economicsnewspaper.com/policy/german/electricity-from-france-germany-doubled-import-9194.html

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Where are you getting this information besides your imagination?

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/0,1518,765006-2,00.html This is in German. There are some tables on capacities in Germany. http://www.umweltdaten.de/publikationen/fpdf-l/4117.pdf This is in German, too. They say they will issue an English version soon. http://www.senat.fr/fileadmin/Fichiers/Images/commission/affaires_europeennes/Actualites_13.pdf This is in French. English newspapers seem to be less interested to look into the details, if you come across some good in depth reporting on the subject please let me know. The article linked in your post does not put things into perspective enough. However, it seems like an interesting newspaper, I didn't know before. Thank you!

Got anything other than opinions and unfactual anecdotes?

To what exactly do you refer, when you say ‘unfactual’ anecdotes?

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Good for the French. Not following the Germans over the cliff. We'll see about 15 years from now where things stand in the Energy markets, if the Germans had a good idea, or as is much more likely, a very bad idea as they end up spending more and more money purchasing power from others.

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