France's wobbly position as pioneer in nuclear power

A third of France's nuclear power stations are down for repairs, and French energy company EDF now plans to buy around a billion euros worth of electricity from abroad. Yet the myth of inexhaustible nuclear energy lives on, as the left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung points out disparagingly: "Instead of reducing nuclear consumption and diversifying supplies France is relying entirely on nuclear energy. With the backing of the state leadership it is presenting the 'new generation' of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) as the only solution to ensuring power supplies. Energy company EDF is even cynically using the current production bottlenecks as an argument for speeding up the process of replacing the old nuclear power plants with EPRs. France is also very eager to defend its position as world leader in the area of 'civilian' nuclear technology."

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