French greens urge vote on nuclear power following leaks in Paris

NUCLEAR DEBATE:FRENCH GREEN groups have called for a referendum on the future of nuclear power, breaking a tacit truce between the government and the ecology movement in a country with one the world's biggest nuclear industries.

With 58 reactors in 19 plants, three-quarters of France’s electricity is generated by nuclear power stations and the country is second only to the United States in its use of nuclear energy.

But as fears were rising over radiation leaks at plants in Japan yesterday, Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit reopened the French debate on the lucrative but controversial industry by calling for a referendum on its future.

“It raises the question of the need for nuclear power,” he said. “Is it not time to sound the alarm?”

“It’s clear that when there’s a significant natural disaster, all the so-called safety measures fail in a country with the highest level of technical know-how,” Green leader Cécile Duflot said. “The nuclear risk is not a risk that can really be controlled.”

The anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucléaire held a protest at the Eiffel Tower, while Greenpeace joined the calls for a reversal of the French stance, which has been a central plank of economic policy since the oil shock of the 1970s.

The row broke a tacit agreement in place since 2007, under which the government would support the green movement’s stance on climate change in exchange for less confrontational lobbying on the nuclear issue. With cantonal elections due later this month, it comes at an awkward time for President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP and the Socialist Party, both of which are traditionally supportive of the nuclear industry.

Prime minister François Fillon convened a summit of senior ministers and executives from nuclear firm Areva and the power giant EDF, while government members moved yesterday to calm public fears on the issue.

Environment minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet acknowledged that the situation in Japan was “very serious” and that France would learn lessons from it.

The French green movement has particular reservations about the nuclear plant at Fessenheim in Alsace, the oldest in the country. Campaigners argue that it was built to 1970s earthquake safety standards, but Ms Kosciusko-Morizet said Fessenheim was built to withstand an earthquake five times bigger than the most powerful seen in the region, in 1356.

In France the risk of flooding is another concern. In December 1999, huge storms on the Atlantic coast caused flooding in parts of the nuclear plant at Blayais, causing three of its four reactors to be shut down. The government says the Blayais incident led to a tightening of safety measures across the industry.

Meanwhile, German chancellor Angela Merkel announced the suspension of a deeply unpopular agreement to delay closing the nation’s nuclear power stations.

Last year, the coalition agreed to prolong the life of Germany’s ageing nuclear plants beyond their original planned closure dates.

Dr Merkel faces a backlash against her nuclear policy before elections in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg later this month. Her conservative CDU party risks losing power in the state, due partly to rising support for the Greens.

Mr Westerwelle, who leads the Free Democrats, the junior coalition partner, said earlier that a suspension was possible.

The government had decided to keep the nuclear plants running for about 12 years beyond their original shutdown date, despite large-scale protests even before the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.

Germany had been due to go nuclear-free after the last plant reached the end of its life in 2021. But pressure grew to keep the stations open.