Europe’s nuclear power industry on Thursday won an important boost when Electricité de France, the state-owned French electricity group, announced it would build a prototype â,¬3-billion next-generation plant on the Normandy coast.
France, which depends on nuclear power for 80% of its energy, is to build a new atomic reactor which EDF says is safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than those in use.
The French decision to go ahead with the European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR) comes as Britain, spurred by Tony Blair, is rethinking the nuclear option in the face of soaring oil prices, dwindling North Sea oil and gas reserves and slow progress in developing renewables.
In a move that horrified anti-nuclear campaigners Pierre Gadonneix, chairperson of EDF, said the group would seek swift planning permission for the first EPR it plans to build at Flamanville, south-west of Cherbourg.
It will be built on the same site as an existing nuclear plant. – Guardian Unlimited Â