European summit on energy: the French government and nuclear industry's suicidal European energy policy

Réseau "Sortir du nucléaire"
French Network for Nuclear Phaseout
A federation of 875 groups
http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org/

together with:
Rete Nazionale Antinucleare
(Italian Antinuclear Network)

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Press release :

European summit on energy: the French government and nuclear industry's suicidal European energy policy

03.02.11 - France, with the assistance of Italy and the Czech Republic, is lobbying the European  Council so that the European Union includes the development of nuclear energy instead of renewable energy. Their goal : to replace the quota of 20% renewable energy in Europe in 2020 with a quota of "carbon-free" electricity in the future text of conclusions from the 27 EU leaders summit on energy, 4 February [i].

Nuclear energy hidden behind "carbon-free electricity"

"Carbon-free electricity"is the latest trick from the nuclear industry to get nuclear power to pass for a clean energy "without CO2". They forget that the entire nuclear industry  generates a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions... In contrast, renewable energy provides an effective contribution to the fight against climate change and doesn't produce radioactive waste ; furthermore, there is no risk of proliferation or nuclear accidents either.

While renewable energy is experiencing unprecedented growth in Europe, representing nearly 40% of new power generation for electricity in 2010 [ii], the decline of nuclear power on our continent is indeed a reality: since 2004, 18 nuclear reactors were closed, only one became operational [iii]. 

Adopting a goal of "carbon-free" electricity  diverts already scarce funding for renewable energy in 27 countries of the European Union towards nuclear, which enjoys massive subsidies. While the current target of 20% renewable energy by 2020 applies to all energy uses (transport, heating, air conditioning ...), the quota of "carbon-free electricity"  would be restricted to electric power.

Nuclear power is running out of ammunitions

Unmanageable huge quantities of nuclear waste, repeated failures in the export of EPR, nuclear kWh cost higher than the wind’s and uranium imports are weakening the energy security of Europe.  The nuclear industry is ageing very badly.  Taking over the financing of renewable energy is one of its last shots. Thus, the French government, which has increased the legal barriers and cut the financial tap to stifle the development of wind power and solar photovoltaic in France, now wants to impose this policy to the 27 EU member countries.

In a desperate attempt to save its nuclear industry, France wants to condemn the whole of Europe to a suicidal energy policy.

The French antinuclear network "Sortir du nucléaire " and its Italian counterpart "Rete Nazionale Antinucleare" call on the representatives of 27 at the European summit on energy to block nuclear and to save the renewable energy industry by refusing the goal of "carbon-free" electricity proposed by France, Italy and the Czech Republic.

Let's change with the times, and leave nuclear behind !

[i] The sentence (in bold) that France and the Czech Republic want to enroll in paragraph 15 of the concluding text of the 27 EU leaders summit on 4 February: "Particular attention should be paid to the practical realisation of intermediate steps to achieve the 2050 target, noting that the Commission has indicated that a proportion of 2 / 3 of electricity production should be low carbon by 2020. "

[ii] 2010 Annual Report of The European Wind Energy Association: http://ewea.org/fileadmin/ewea_documents/documents/statistics/EWEA_Annual_Statistics_2010.pdf

[iii] IAEA Data on Nuclear Reactors: http://www.iaea.org/programmes/a2/index.html

Press contact:

Steven Mitchell +33 (0)952 495 022

Charlotte Mijeon  +33  (0)6 75 36 20 20

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Charlotte Mijeon

Chargée de campagne / Relations extérieures

Réseau "Sortir du nucléaire"

Maison de l'Economie Solidaire

81 bis, rue Gantois

59000 LILLE

Tél : 03 20 17 94 91

Mob : 06 75 36 20 20

www.sortirdunucleaire.org