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Civaux in France Southwest is a French rural village stereotyped with a square, a church and a small school on a typical day, Mr. Rambault, the baker, is before dawn unmold baguettes and croissants Soon after, Professor Rene Barc opens the small school there is a blacksmith, a hair salon, a post office, general store and two bars, but overlooking the picturesque hamlet of two giant cooling towers of a nuclear power plant, still under construction, half a mile away when nuclear power Civaux comes online some time in the next 12 months, France has 56 nuclear power plants working, generating 76 of its electricity.
In France, unlike America, nuclear power is accepted, even popular Everybody I talked to Civaux like the fact that their region was chosen nuclear power plant brought jobs and prosperity in the region Nobody I spoke, no one expressed fear from the village school teacher, Rene Barc, the boss of Sport Cafe bar, Valérie Turbeau, any trace of doubt they could have disappeared as they learned to know the workers in the factory, visited the reactor site and thought about the benefits of being part of the effort of nuclear energy from France.
The decision by France to launch a comprehensive nuclear program dates back to 1973 and the events in the Middle East they call the oil shock The quadrupling of oil prices by OPEC countries was indeed a shock for France because at that time most of its electricity came from oil fired power France had and still has very few natural energy resources it has no oil, no gas and coal resources are very poor and practically exhausted.
the French makers saw only one way for France to achieve energy independence of nuclear energy, an energy source so small that few books fissile uranium is the fuel needed to run high city for one year the plans were drawn up for introducing the most comprehensive program of nuclear energy in national history over the next 15 years, France has installed 56 nuclear reactors meet its electricity needs and even export of electricity to other European countries.
There were some protests in the early 70s, but since then, with one important exception discussed below, the nuclear program has been popular and remarkably uncontroversial How was France able to get his people to accept the nuclear energy what French culture and politics that allowed them succeed where most others have failed.
Claude Mandil, the executive director of materials Energy and Raw Materials at the Ministry of Industry, cites at least three reasons: First, he says, the French are an independent people The idea of being dependent on energy on a volatile region of the world such as the Middle east disturbed many french citizens quickly agreed that nuclear power could be a need a french popular response to the question why they have so much nuclear power is no oil, no gas, no coal, no choice.
Second, Mandil cites cultural factors France has a tradition of large technology projects managed centrally and, he says, they are French popular people like big plans They like nuclear power for the same reasons they like high-speed trains and supersonic jets.
Part of their popularity stems from the fact that scientists and engineers have a much higher status in France than in America Many senior government officials and leaders trained as scientists and engineers rather than lawyers, as the United States, and, unlike the United States where federal administrators are often despised, these technocrats form a special elite Many are graduates of some elite schools such as the Polytechnic According Mandil, respect and confidence in technocrats is widespread for a long time, in families, the good thing for a child was to become an engineer or a scientist, not a lawyer we love our engineers and scientists and we are confident in them.
, He said Thirdly, the French authorities have worked hard to get people to think about the benefits of nuclear energy and risk Glossy television advertising campaigns reinforce the link between nuclear energy and electricity makes possible modern life NPPs solicit people to take tours - an offer that six million French took today, nuclear power is a common thing in France.
Many polls have been taken from the French public opinion and found that about two-thirds of the population are strongly in favor of nuclear energy is not the French don t have an instinctive fear of energy nuclear psychologist Paul Slovic and colleagues decision research in Eugene, Oregon, discovered in their investigations that many French have similar negative images and fears of radiation and disasters as Americans the difference is that the cultural forces, economic and political in France act to counter those fears.
For example, while French citizens can not control the nuclear technology more than the Americans, that they trust technocrats who control they feel safer then it is necessary Most French know that life would be very difficult without nuclear energy Because they need nuclear energy more than us, they fear less.
Civaux baker Jacques Rambault admits that this technology is potentially dangerous and requires skilled management As shown Chernobyl, the Russians, he said, were not up to the task, but French scientists and engineers for other people, rubbing shoulders with workers at the plant has made this technology once exotic thing every day many other risks affecting the most Mrs Schoumacher, who lived in Civaux most of his life, said I'd be much more afraid to live next to a dam France has about 12 hydroelectric power or to enter his car the other morning as bar owner Alain Cauvin cites the mad cow as much scarier than nuclear energy.
Ironically, the French nuclear program is based on US technology After experimenting with their own gas-cooled reactors in the 1960s, the French abandoned and bought US pressurized water reactors designed by Westinghouse stick to one design meant that 56 plants were much cheaper to build than in the US Moreover, the management of security issues was much easier lessons from any incident at a plant could be quickly learned by managers of 55 other plants the return experience says Mandil is much more in a standardized system that in a free for all, with many different models managed by many different services we have in America.
Things are going very well until the late 80s when another surface nuclear issue that threatened to derail their nuclear waste very successful program.
French technocrats had never thought that the issue of waste would be much of a problem from the start, the French had been recycling their nuclear waste, recovery of plutonium and the uranium and manufacture new fuel elements That not only given energy, it reduces the volume and longevity of french radioactive waste volume of high level waste final was indeed very low contribution of a family of four with electricity for 20 years is a glass cylinder the size of a cigarette lighter it was assumed that these high-level waste would be buried in underground geological disposal and in the 80 French engineers began to dig trial pits in rural France.
To the astonishment of the technocrats of France, the people of these regions have been extremely unfortunate riots took place the same rural areas who had exercised actively pressured to become NPP sites were openly hostile to the idea of being chosen as the discharge of nuclear waste from France retrospect, Mandil said, it is not surprising there is not the risk of a waste site, as the lack of perceived benefit people in France can be proud of their nuclear power plants, but nobody wants to be proud to have a nuclear dustbin under his feet in 1990, all activity was stopped and the case was submitted to the French Parliament, which named a politician, Mr. Battle, to address the question.
Christian Bataille resembles the French comedian Jacques Tati's face breaks into a grin when asked why he was appointed to the task they were desperate, he said, in France, the executive dominates much as in countries While Anglo-Saxon if the executive asks Parliament to do something, it means they are really at the end of their ideas.
Battle went and talked to people who were protesting and soon realized that engineers and bureaucrats had greatly misunderstood the psychology of the French people Technocrats saw the problem in technical terms for them the cheapest and safest solution was to bury the waste underground But for the french rural Battle said, the idea of burying the waste deepest human myths revived in France the dead are buried, we do t bury nuclear waste there was an idea desecration of the soil, the desecration of the Earth.
Battle discovered that the rural population had an idea of the Parisians, electricity consumers, from the countryside, going to the bottom of your garden with a shovel, dig a hole and burying nuclear waste permanently word definitely was particularly awkward said Battle because he left the impression that the authorities still abandoned waste and would never return to take care of it.
The fight against the objections of technical experts have argued that it would increase costs, Battle introduced the concepts of reversibility and waste storage should not be buried permanently, but supplied in a way that made available at some point in the future people felt much happier with the idea of a storage facility of a nuclear graveyard was it just a semantic difference not said Battle waste disposal and involves looking a commitment to the future, it means that the waste will not be forgotten implies that the authorities will continue to be responsible and said Battle, it offers a possibility of future progress Today, we store the waste containers, because now scientists do not know how to reduce or eliminate the toxicity, but maybe in 100 years perhaps scientists.
Battle began working on a new law that was submitted to Parliament in 1991, he laid plans to build 3-4 research laboratories at various sites These laboratories would be responsible for investigating various options, including storage in deep geological strata, above ground storage and transmutation of waste and detoxification the law calls for laboratories to build in the coming years and, depending on the research they give, the Parliament will decide its final decision the law precisely Battle 2006 as the year when the Parliament has to decide which laboratory will become the national repository.
The battle plan seems to work Several regions have applied to host clandestine laboratories hoping that laboratories bring money and prestige top scientific jobs, but the ultimate success is not certain one of these laboratories will indeed become the center storage for the nation and the local population can find that unacceptable If the protesters are organizing, they can block the shipments on road and rail networks, the situation could quickly get out of hand.
Nuclear waste is an extremely difficult political problem to date, no country is resolved, in a sense, the Achilles heel of the nuclear industry that question could strike single nuclear program success in France of French politicians and technocrats are undoubtedly if France is unable to solve this problem, said Mandil, then I do not see how we can continue our nuclear program.
Why the French like nuclear energy nuclear reaction FRONTLINE PBS, French, nuclear, energy, many French.
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