La France nucleaire - Nuclear France

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced July 3 that he has decided to construct another European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) in France. He did not state where or when it will go into operation, but he did say that construction must begin in 2011.

Source: Portail du Gouvernement. Premier Ministre. Press announcement. July 3, 2008.

Cameco has announced that it plans to begin pumping the water from the Cigar Lake Mine in Saskatchewan, Canada, flooded in 2006 as the result of a rock fall. Cameco has already plugged the opening in the rocks through which water entered the mine. Cameco owns 50% of the yet-to-be opened mine; Areva Resources Canada owns a 37% interest. See below "A Setback for Areva's Mining Program," posted November 1, 2006.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced February 26 that it has accepted for review the design of the Evolutionary Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR). Areva filed the application for the review December 11, 2007. The NRC expects its study of the application to continue "at least into 2011." The EPR, which is already under construction at Olkiluoto in Finland and Flamanville in France, was originally called the European Pressurized Water Reactor and still carries that name in Europe.

Among other designs before the NRC are General Electric's Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor, which the NRC is reviewing, and Mitsubishi's US-Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor, which the NRC is considering whether to review. It has already certified four standard reactor designs, including Westinghouse's AP 1000 Advanced Reactor Design.

Agence France Presse reported January 15 that China will not execute its contract with Areva for two EPRs, if Areva will not make an irrevocable promise to turn over technology for reprocessing irradiated fuel to China. The contract was concluded, with fanfare, November 26, 2007 (see below, "Areva Finally Obtains . . .").

January 13 Anne Lauvergeon CEO of Areva and Mamadou Tandja, president of Niger, signed agreements renewing Areva's right to operate the Cominak and Somair mines in northwestern Niger in 2008 and 2009 and allowing Areva to open an additional mine at Imouraren in northern Niger. The price that Areva pays Niger for a pound of uranium oxide will rise from $32 to more than $40 in 2008 with a further increase in 2009 for a total increase of about 50%. Areva anticipates that it will obtain 5000 tons of uranium per year from the Imouraren mine when it goes into operation in 2010. According to the Figaro, Areva mined approximately 3500 tons of uranium in Niger, more than 40% of its production, in 2007 .

Sources: Areva, Press Release, January 13, 2008, posted on www.areva.com; "Mine d'uraniuim," AFP, January 13, 2008; "Uranium--Areva renouvelle ses contrats au Niger," Le Figaro, January 14, 2008.

The U.S. administration proposed spending $160 million in fiscal year 2008 for components for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) to be built at Cadarache. Nevertheless, in the 2008 budget bill, the U.S. Congress approved $10.7 million for Iter-related research and nothing for construction. The director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is heading up the U.S. role in the international project, told journalist Frank Munger that the U.S. team had wanted to start component acquisition because it is afraid that prices for materials will rise. The future of the U.S. role is unclear.

Source: Frank Munger, "Iter Needs Some SNS 'Luck,'' Knoxnews.com blogs, posted December 30, 2007.

Areva has completed the design certification application for what is now called the U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor (U.S. EPR) and submitted it to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission December 11. Unistar, a joint venture between Constellation Energy and EDF, has proposed building at least four EPRs in the United States. See Yahoo Finance, http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071211/netu030.html?.v=36 .

December 3 when Nicolas Sarkozy was visiting Algeria, the Observatoire des Armements/CDRPC in Lyon issued a press release and a report asking if it is not time for France to assume its responsibilities in the aftermath of nuclear testing in Algeria. According to Bruno Barrillot, who visited the site with a team from French television in November, France abandoned the site without removing radioactive waste or fencing it off. The press release and the recommendations from the report, translated into English, are at http://www.earthisland.org/yggdrasil/algeria%20031207.htm .

In a dispatch dated December 4, Reuters reported that a source close to President Sarkozy says that France will send experts to Algeria to study the consequences of the nuclear tests and will "assume its responsibilities" there.

Agence France Presse reported, also December 4, that during Sarkozy's visit to Algeria, Algeria and France agreed to cooperate on the "development of nuclear energy for peaceful ends. Platts (December 5) listed the areas of cooperation as "basic research, technology transfer, training, electricity production and uranium exploration and production." Algeria has two small research reactors but no nuclear power plants. It had previously signed an agreement for nuclear cooperation with the United States.

Cages containing the mummified bodies of goats exposed to an atmospheric nuclear test in Algeria, 1 April 1960

After four years of negotiations, Areva and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp. (CGNPC) concluded a contract November 26 worth 8 billion euros (some 12 billion dollars). Two European pressurized water reactors (EPRs) will be constructed at Taishan in Guangdong province. Work is to begin in 2009; and the reactors are scheduled to go into operation around 2014. According to Les Echos, the reactors are apparently priced in the contract at 3.6 billion euros for the two. (This is the price of the single EPR being constructed at Flamanville in France.) In addition to the reactors themselves, Areva will provide 600 tons of fuel for them annually through 2026. It will also provide China with 35% of the uranium produced by the Canadian mining company UraMin which Areva bought earlier this year and which has uranium rights in Namibia, South Africa, and the Central African Republic. Areva and CGNPC plan to create an engineering company, in which each will have a 50% share. Areva will transfer the EPR technology to this company, an arrangement, which Areva claims, will give it partial control of the process. Westinghouse when it sold four AP1000 reactors to China in 2006 agreed to transfer the entire technology directly to China.

Areva has entered into an agreement with the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to create a company in common to produce zirconium for fuel cladding. In addition, Areva and CNNC plan to study the feasibility of eventually constructing a reprocessing facility in China.

Source: "Nucléaire: Areva décroche enfin son grand contrat chinois," Les Echos, November 27, 2007.

The nuclear industry is on its way out rather than experiencing a renaissance, the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2007 demonstrates. The report, released November 21, was commissioned by the Greens-European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament and written by Mycle Schneider with the assistance of Antony Froggatt. Currently 339 reactors are in operation worldwide, five fewer than five years ago. The total capacity of the 339 is 371,000 MW. They thus furnish 16% of the electricity, 6% of the commercial primary energy, and 2-3% of the final energy in the world, less than hydropower. If a lifetime of 40 years per reactor is assumed (a generous assumption given that the 117 reactors that have been shut down operated for an average of only about 22 years each), 261 new reactors would have to go into operation between now and 2025, in addition to the 32 reactors already under construction, just to replace the units that would be shut down in that period. This would mean one new reactor going online every month and a half to 2015 and one every 18 days for the following ten years. Given the length of time necessary to license and construct a reactor, such a schedule would be virtually impossible to implement. The situation is exacerbated by "lack of a trained workforce, massive loss of competence, severe manufacturing bottlenecks (a single facility in the world, Japan Steel Works, can cast large forgings for reactor pressure vessels), lack of confidence of international finance institutions," and strong competition from natural gas and renewable energy systems. Schneider also wrote Industry Status Reports in 1992 and 2004 and cites figures from them to show trends. The complete report is available online at http://www.greens-efa.org . (Click on English at the bottom of the first page to enter the site.)

At the World Energy Congress, meeting in Rome, Ann Lauvergeon, CEO of Areva, called November 12 for an international licensing system for nuclear plants in order to streamline the licensing process. DowJones Business News quotes her as stating that "If we are to restart (the process of authorization for nuclear development) every time, it's a very costly issue for us." A fast-track process "would make sense." UniStar, a joint venture of the US company Constellation Energy and EDF, has already submitted to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the first part of a two-part application, for a license to construct an Evolutionary Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR), designed by Areva, at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. At the World Energy Conference, Lauvergeon also announced that Areva is considering acquiring uranium mining operations in the United States.

Sources: Bobette Riner, "French Nuke Know-How Crossing the Atlantic," Natural Gas Week, August 13, 2007; David Roman, DowJones Business News, November 12, 2007

Areva has announced that it plans to build an enrichment plant at an as-yet-to-be-selected location within the United States. Plans call for the plant to go into operation in 2013 and reach initial capacity of 3 million SWU/yr by 2017. It will be the third new plant in the United States. The other two will be LES's National Enrichment Facility in New Mexico and USEC's American Centrifuge Plant in Ohio. Nevertheless, Areva's Michael McMurphy told Nuclear Fuel that the Areva plant is intended to help provide enriched uranium to existing US reactors. All three new plants will employ centrifuge technology. In the case of Areva, the centrifuges will be supplied by the Enrichment Technology Corp., owned by Areva and Urenco. Areva has already begun construction of a centrifuge plant, George Besse II, at Tricastin in France. This plant is scheduled to begin operation in 2009 and produce 7.5 million SWU in 2018.

Source: Ann MacLachlan and Daniel Horner, "Areva Plans to Build US Enrichment Plant," Nuclear Fuel 32, no. 14 (July 2, 2007), p. 1ff.

A list of the 500 fastest supercomputers in the world, released at the 2007 International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany in June, ranks the CEA's computer at Bruyères-le-Châtel as twelfth fastest. The computer from Bull, which plays a key role in the CEA's program to simulate nuclear tests, has a top speed of 52.8 teraflops per second. (A teraflop is a trillion calculations.) The fastest computer is at Livermore National Laboratory in the United States and has a top speed of 280.6 teraflops per second. Computers in Spain and in Germany are in the ninth and tenth positions respectively. The entire list can be seen at www.top500.org .

France conducted its second test of the M51 missile June 21, 2007, at the Centre d'Essais et de Lancement de Missile des Landes at Biscarosse. The first test was carried out November 9, 2006. The missile is intended to replace the M45 missile on submarines beginning in 2010.

The coalition "Non au Missile M51" had announced the morning of June 19 that citizen inspectors had just prevented a test launch of the M51 by entering the missile-launching site. According to the coalition, the test was originally to have been conducted that morning in secrecy. It maintains that two members were on the site when the test finally occurred. It regards the test as a violation of Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Sources: "Deuxième tir d'essai du missile M51 en dépit des anti-nucléaires," Reuteurs, June 21, 2007

In the French presidential debate May 2, Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkovy exchanged statistics in regard to nuclear energy. Royal said that nuclear energy accounts for 17% of the electricity generated in France; Sarkozy set the figure at 50%. In 2005, nuclear energy was the source of 78.5% of the electricity generated in France. Royal's 17% referred to the contribution of nuclear to the end consumption of energy in general in France, including petroleum. Sarkozy's 50% did not refer to anything.

In regard to types of reactors Royal was correct. The European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) is a Generation III reactor, not a Generation IV reactor as Sarkozy indicated. This mistake on Sarkozy's part is surprising, since as minister of the economy in 2005, he launched the EPR project, which he still favors.

Royal would suspend the recent authorization to construct an EPR in Flamanville and organize a new national energy debate. She raises the question of whether it would be advantageous to go from current reactors to Generation IV reactors. Generation IV reactors, which will be designed to economize uranium and to "burn" components of radioactive waste, are not expected to be ready to enter into service until around 2040.

Sortir du Nucleaire, "Suites du débat N. Sarkozy--S. Royal" [Press release], 3 May, 2007.

April 26, 2007 the Journal officiel published decree 2007-607 stating that "The annual production capacity of [Melox] is limited to 195 tons of uranium and plutonium contained in products leaving the plant and destined for light water reactors," i.e. 195 tons per year of heavy metal. When the plant began operation in 1995, it was authorized to produce only 115 tons per year of mixed oxide. In 2003 the authorization was raised to 145 tons per year of heavy metal.

At a symposium in April on mining in Nunavut, Charlie Jefferson of the Canadian Geological Survey presented evidence that the Thelon Basin area may be as rich in uranium as the Athabasca Basin area, now being mined in Saskatchawan. Areva Resources Canada has three uranium exploration properties in Nunavut: Sissons ( Areva 50%, JCU Exploration [Canada] 48%, and Daewoo 2%), St. Tropez, and Kiggavik (99% Areva, 1% Daewoo). Areva plans to complete exploratory drilling on the Kiggavik project this year and to make a decision in the fall as to whether mining there would be economically feasible. The property is comprised of seventeen mineral leases on a total of 3972 ha, eighty kilometers west of Baker Lake. Production at Kiggavik cannot be expected to begin until at least 2015, but, if it does, Areva will presumably be the first company to obtain uranium from Nunavut. Nunavut is in north-central Canada, above Manitoba. The land is controlled by the Inuit rather than by the federal government.

Sources: Weber, Bob. "Uranium Miners, Explorers Radiate Optimism over Northern Deposit Potential, Canadian Press, April 18, 2007. Available online

A decree authorizing construction of a European Pressurized Water Reactor ( EPR) at Flamanville (Manche) was published in the Journal officiel April 11, 2007. Two reactors already operate at the site.

March 21, 2007, the French Nuclear Safety Authority gave its consent to use of MOX fuel in reactors C5 and C6 of Electricité de France's (EDF's) Gravelines plant (Nord-Pas-de-Calais) (Avis no. 2007-AV-0020). A decree authorizing use is expected to follow. The other four reactors at the site, B1, B2, B3, and B4, are already authorized to use MOX.

EDF is also in the process of obtaining authorization to use MOX in reactors 3 and 4 of the Le Blayais plant (Aquitaine). Reactors 1 and 2 at Le Blayais are already authorized to use MOX.

In a press release of March 22, 2007, Areva announced that its consolidated net income in 2006 was 649 million euros, down 38.1% percent from its consolidated net income in 2005. The company attributes the decline to delays in the construction of a new European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) in Finland and a consequent decrease in its earnings from its reactors and services division. On the other hand, its backlog of orders increased in 2006 by 24.6% and sales revenue was up 7.3%. Areva is still attempting to obtain control of the German group RePower Systems AG, which manufactures wind turbines.

Sixty thousand people marched in a total of five French cities March 17 for an end to EDF's plan to construct an EPR in Flammanville. The demonstration was sponsored by Stop EPR and the Sortir du Nucléaire network and was aimed, in particular, at influencing the positions of candidates running for election..

Large Associates has released a report that calculates that operating a 1600 MWe European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) at Flamanville as planned would place the public at tremendous risk. The EPR can be fueled entirely with mixed oxide fuel containing plutonium (MOX). Risks and Hazards of the Proposed and Existing EPR/PWR Nuclear Power Plants in France compares the results in terms of human health of an accident or terrorist attack resulting in a containment bypass or failure at the EPR when it is loaded with one or three types of fuel: entirely MOX fuel, entirely low-enriched uranium fuel (LEU), or a mixture of 30% MOX and 70% LEU. The report also calculates the results of such a severe accident for certain smaller, currently operating plants, including a 1330 MWe reactor with an LEU core at Flamanville.

John H. Large states that a loss of containment at the EPR with a 100% MOX core could result in a maximum 650 early deaths, 60,760 late fatal cancers, and 1,307 thyroid cancer deaths. The maximum land area that should be evacuated would total 44,810 sq kilometers and the number of people that should be evacuated, 3,319,000. The EPR with all LEU or with 30% MOX, and the other reactors would cause fewer deaths of the various types. With an LEU core, the EPR, for example, could cause a maximum of 381 early deaths and 26,430 late fatal cancers.

For the calculations Large uses European Community Standard modeling software (COSYMA). Using the same methods, Electricité de France (EDF) produced different figures. The worst case scenario that EDF has made public concerns the EPR with 100% LEU fuel. The maximum early deaths would be 0, late fatal cancers, 11; and thyroid cancer deaths 1. The land area that should be evacuated is 123 sq km, and the number of people 2,952. The basic reason for the discrepancy between the results of Large and those of EDF is that EDF does not believe that there are any foreseeable circumstances in which the EPR would experience a catastrophic release of radioactivity. The plant is capable of resisting even a terrorist attack from the air, EDF holds. Large argues that, like all high-technology systems, the EPR is at risk of catastrophic failure due to circumstances that cannot be foreseen.

The report was commissioned by Greenpeace France . A summary of the report in English and the report itself can be accessed on the Web site of Large and Associates, www.largeassociates.com/PapersReports.htm .

--posted February 25, 2007

Ton Sang Replaces Temaru in French Polynesia

December 26 the French Polynesian Assembly elected a new president Gaston Tong Sang, mayor of Bora Bora . Ton Sang is leader of the “autonomist” camp, organized around the Tahoeraa party of Gaston Flosse, a personal friend of French president Jacques Chirac. The vote was 31 for Tong Sang and 26 for Oscar Temaru, outgoing president. The government of Temaru, who headed a pro-independence coalition, had received a vote of no confidence December 13 in the Assembly.

Bruno Barrillot, expert with the Polynesian Advisory Council on the Follow-up of the Consequences of Testing (COSCEN) discusses below the accomplishments of the government of Temaru:

The Aftermath of French Nuclear Testing, The Temaru Governmentn's Engagement for Right and Justice

The government of Oscar Temaru and its majority can be proud of their record on the follow-up of the consequences of nuclear tests, since Temaru’s entry into office in June 2005. Six months of study of the atmospheric tests by an inquiry commission in the French Polynesian Assembly resulted in February 2006 in a report that broke the silence that had been maintained by institutions in both Paris and Polynesia . There followed:

--a proposed resolution filed by the socialist group in the Senate in Paris demanding the creation of an inquiry commission on the health and environmental consequences of nuclear testing in Polynesia (March 2006);

--a proposed bill filed by the socialist group in the National Assembly in Paris aimed at the recognition and compensation of people who are victims of nuclear tests or accidents (April 2006);

--an international colloquium on the health, environmental and political aspects of nuclear tests, held in the presidential premises in French Polynesia (June 2006);

` --inauguration at Papeete of a monument to the memory of all the victims of nuclear testing (July 2006);

--trips (on order) to Tahiti by the defense ministry’s delegate on nuclear safety, M. Jurien de la Gravière, five times (between October 2005 and November 2006) to defend the official thesis of “clean tests” or “almost clean” tests before the elected representatives and the Polynesian people;

--unanimous approval by members of the Polynesian Economic, Social, and Cultural Council of a report on the responsibility of the State for the consequences of nuclear testing (November 2006);

--questioning in the Senate in Paris by Mme Hélène Luc, of Mme Alliot-Marie, defense minister, on the consequences of nuclear tests. Mme Alliot-Marie is to announce, under restriction, access to the nuclear testing archives that have been closed for sixty years (November 2006);

--as part of the 2007 defense budget, the financing of the operations of “destruction rehabilitation” planned for several years for the former sites of the Pacific Experiment Center abandoned by the military on the islands and atolls near Moruroa and today in ruins;

--an announcement by the defense ministry that it will put at the disposal of Polynesia the human and material means to assure the monitoring of the health of Polynesians living near to the former test sites and former Polynesian workers at Moruroa. . . .

If France engages in concrete measures to answer the vigorous questioning of the Polynesians, it still refuses to recognize its responsibilities for the consequences of its nuclear tests. In October 2006, M. Jurien de la Gravière still proclaimed, against all the evidence, that all precautions were taken for the protection of the population, that “no test would have justified measures to shelter” and that it was “as a precautionary measure” that populations were either evacuated or placed in “contingency” shelters.

There remains to be accomplished the immense task of obtaining the rights of all the victims of nuclear testing: former workers at Moruroa or the Sahara tests, veterans and populations. The government of M. Temaru is to be honored for its engagement in the process of right and justice. This action of the Polynesians is now known throughout the world, thanks to the media which has supported and saluted the struggle of a “small population” against the “reason” of a State that imposed on it nuclear tests that the State did not dare to do at home. The hope for a justice finally foreseen is an encouragement for all the “small populations” and for all the associations of nuclear test victims to make their voices heard before the international authorities. The government of Algeria has decided to take the baton from the government of M. Temaru by organizing for February 13 and 14, 2007, on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the first French bomb in the Sahara , a big international colloquium on the consequences of nuclear testing

--posted December 27, 2006

The Finnish utility TVO, which is building a European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) at Olkiluoto, announced December 4 that the plant is not expected to begin operating until 2010-2011, some two years later than was originally planned. TVO blamed delays in construction and in manufacturing the main coolant lines for this latest of several announced delays. The utility ordered the plant from Areva-Siemens, which developed the EPR.

Representatives of the French and Italian governments have signed an agreement that will make possible negotiation of a contract for Areva to reprocess 235 tons of irradiated Italian fuel. The law of June 28, 2006, on waste management requires an international agreement specifying when any foreign material to be reprocessed will be received and when the resulting waste will be shipped to the country of origin. The dates in the French-Italian agreement are loose, between 2007 and 2015 for the reception and 2020 and 2025 for the return. Italy ended its nuclear power program in 1987 and has no nuclear weapons program, so will have no use for the plutonium extracted from the fuel.

Sources: Press releases of November 24, 2006, from the French government and from Greenpeace

Dismantling at Marcoule--Slow Progress

A press dossier that the CEA gave to journalists who visited dismantling projects at Fontenay-aux-Roses and Marcoule October 25 and 26 contains some eye-popping statistics. The process of dismantling and decontaminating the UP1 reprocessing plant at Marcoule involves 1000 rooms representing 140,000 cubic meters of radioactive zones. The work on UP1 itself and the related decladding and vitrification/ fission-products-storage facilities will produce 27,000 tons of “weakly” and “very weakly” radioactive waste, not to mention other types of waste, and will necessitate 4,300,000 hours of work and 1,000,000 hours of studies.

The operations began in 1988. By the end of 2005, 4,200 tons of equipment had been dismantled, and 840,000 hours of work carried out. Progress is slowed by such factors as the existence at the decladding facilities of areas that past incidents rendered physically inaccessible. The goal of preparing UP1 to be removed from the list of Basic Nuclear Installations (INB) and categorized as an Installation Classified for the Protection of the Environment (ICPE)—sum of the radioactivity present not to exceed 1,000 curies (37 trillion becquerels)-- is not expected to be reached until 2040.

The repackaging of waste involves two programs. One deals with 60,000 containers of waste from the treatment of liquid effluents, which has been incorporated in asphalt. To date, 6,000 of these containers have been retrieved from their storage site and placed in overpacks of stainless steel. The second program deals with other types of waste at the site: “very highly radioactive waste incorporated in glass at the vitrification facility, waste from the decladding facility (magnesium, graphite, metal), pulverulent waste (resins, zeolites . . . ), and waste rich in alpha emitters.”

Initially an Economic Interest Group (CODEM), made up of the CEA, EDF, and Cogéma was responsible for the decontamination and dismantling of UP1, with the hands-on work being carried out by Cogéma. To clarify roles, CODEM was dissolved at the end of 2004, and the CEA made responsible for the work, which is now conducted by a group belonging to Areva. .

The dossier, “Les grands chantiers de démantélement au CEA,” is available on the CEA’s web site, www.cea.fr .

--posted November 1, 2006

_____

A Setback for Areva’s Mining Program

Areva, through Areva Resources Canada Inc. owns 37% and Cameco 50% of the Cigar Lake Mine under development in Saskatchewan . In late October Cameco announced that all the existing underground tunnels had been flooded as the result of a rockfall. Areva noted in its Business and Strategy Overview, released in October that it anticipated that Cigar Lake would go into operation in 2007. Now the opening will be delayed. In a press conference held November 1, Cameco stated that it fully expects to complete development of the mine and to be able to extract its ore. However, a plan to deal with the flooding may not be in place for three months. Cogéma/Areva has emphasized the richness of the mine, which was eventually expected to produce 18 million pounds a year of uranium.

--posted November 1, 2006

October 24, 2006 the organization ECCLA (Ecologie du Carcassonnais des Corbières et du Littoral Audois) sent a letter to the president of the CLIC Malvesi (local information committee for Malvesi), demanding that the CLIC work on six questions involving radioactivity from the Malvesi uranium conversion plant. The questions highlight problems at the facility.

ECCLA asks the CLIC to take measures aimed at obtaining a decrease in the level of radioactivity along a road that passes the plant; an analysis of the above-ground and below-ground water and of the soils and sediments at and around the plant; monitoring of agricultural production just outside the plant; a study of the future of the decanting basins at the plant; an explanation of anomalies in samples of sludge stored in the basins; and an epidemiological study of people who have worked at the plant since it began operation in 1958. The organization also asks CLIC to seek a re-examination by French authorities of the classification of the site, with a view to having it declared a Basic Nuclear Installation, and a public informational meeting on the site.

Source: Letter from Pitch Bloch, president of ECCLA, to Ange Mandelli, president of the CLIC Malvesi, October 24, 2006. For additional information contact ECCLA at eccla@wanadoo.FR .

The European Commission has approved the construction of a 1630 MW EPR (European Pressurized Water Reactor) at EDF's Flamanville site (Lower Normandy).