French Nuclear Energy Policy - A Cake The US May Do Well To Not To Consume Too Much Of

Still life with Brioche. Image credit:Wikipedia, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, Remember the whole "Freedom Fries" thing following France's refusal to support the US 2003 military incursion into Iraq? My how time flies. US politicians now cite the French energy policy example with excitement; claiming that nation's high reliance on nuclear power is exemplary. (Inference that support for climate and energy legislation is more likely if nuclear power expansion incentives are included.) It doesn't seem to matter to that France is roughly the size of Texas and that the existing

US nuclear fleet already is far larger than what France has or will ever have. Nor, that the French government controls the nuclear power industry (socialized electricity).

Think it will matter to US Congressional proponents of government-funded nuclear power that France may be forced to import electrical power this winter due to operating problems and that the newest French power plant design - one that some argue should be used to update the nuclear fleet in both France and the USA - was recently challenged for being overly elaborate, and possibly unsafe?

From France24.com comes this story excerpt:

China and Finland are already building French-designed new generation reactors, and talks are underway to export the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) model to Britain, India, Abu Dhabi and the United States.

Alarm bells rang this week, however, when French, British and Finnish regulators called on the French nuclear engineering firm Areva to review the design of the planned plants' safety and control systems.

Meanwhile, French businesses and householders in some regions could face winter power cuts or rationing after labour strikes delayed the refuelling of France's older plants and left almost one third of them off line.