European Energy Conglomerate Zeros in on U.S. Nuclear Plans (Wall St. Journal)
Bush appointee retires, takes post as chairman of Areva SA, a nuclear energy giant with designs on the newly lucrative U.S. market.
April 04, 2006
Areva SA last month hired the Bush administration's recently retired energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, as chairman of Areva's U.S. unit. "France's push hasn't been painless and isn't a panacea... Still unresolved is how to safely dispose of waste that will remain radioactive for millennia."
--Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2006, p.A1.
Areva is a French energy company formerly known as Cogema, one of two state-controlled companies that carried out France's aggressive switch to nuclear energy starting in the 1970s.
At that time, here in the U.S., accidents and unpopularity stopped nuclear power in its tracks. To get it restarted, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 contains provisions to streamline the permitting and construction of a new fleet of nuclear reactors.
President Bush appointed Abraham. The Energy Department under Bush has made the expansion of nuclear energy a top priority. Nuclear energy is an Areva specialty, including marketing its reactors in the U.S.
Areva stated in a press release: "As Non-Executive Chairman, Secretary Abraham will be supporting Areva's business expansion in North America, and will bring to the group his excellent knowledge of the world energy market and international decision-makers."
France's nuclear program touted as a model
Nuclear plants are a hallmark of France's effort to mitigate climate change, and a hallmark objective of the Bush administration.
President Bush, muddling electricity with petroleum, infamously declared in a 2006 State of the Union address that the U.S. is "addicted to oil," and held up France's nuclear strategy as a model for solving America's energy problems.
An article in the Wall Street Journal on March 28, 2006, does a fine job of outlining France's nuclear program and the problems it has caused. In "With a Big Nuclear Push, France Transforms Its Energy Equation" journalist Jeffrey Ball writes:
France's push hasn't been painless and isn't a panacea. The French government hatched and coddled a nuclear industry that has cost an estimated $120 billion. In doing so, the country has accepted risks. French plants have been hit by sporadic radiation leaks. Officials are now preoccupied by the possibility of terrorist attacks. Still unresolved is how to safely dispose of waste that will remain radioactive for millennia. France, moreover, still needs a lot of oil to function. Nuclear reactors generate electricity, which accounts for only 20% of the country's energy consumption. Oil makes up 49%.
Not a complete success
France's nuclear program has never suffered a Chernobyl or Three Mile Island, but its safety record is far from spotless. In 1981, a serious fire at plant in the Hague released radioactive smoke. In 1997, radioactivity was found coming from an exposed portion of pipe carrying treated waste water from the plant to the sea.
Security is of even greater concern. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, France has grown increasingly protective of its nuclear industry. At the Flamanville nuclear plants, officials beefed up fire-fighting capabilities, supplementing water used to fight conventional fires with special foam designed to extinguish blazes caused by jet fuel. At the reprocessing plant, which has always been heavily guarded, the French army dispatched a unit of soldiers who stayed on site for six months. After that, the army set up a radar post at a nearby local airport.
U.S. Nuclear Growth, Made In France
Today, the U.S. has more reactors than any other country, nearly double the number in France.
Some would like to see that number increase -- Areva, the Bush administration, Westinghouse, France and Japan, to name a few. (Toshiba announced in February that it intended to buy U.S.-based nuke plant manufacturer Westinghouse Electric Co. from British Nuclear Fuels PLC for US$5.4 billion.)
"I look forward to joining the innovative and experienced Areva U.S. and continuing to support America's push for energy security and energy independence," Abraham said.
According to an interesting and somewhat skeptical article in the March 27 Augusta Chronicle, Areva won two Energy Department contracts -- one at Hanford and one at Yucca Mountain -- while Mr. Abraham served as secretary.
Comments (Moderated)
"The kind of distributed-energy/smart-grid future greens envision would, if implemented, devolve political power outward from Washington. It would substantially increase regional self-sufficiency. This, as much as any technical debate, explains why the power elite has neglected to pursue it, and even fought against it.
"It also, I think, explains Washington's love of nuclear energy. Nuclear is a familiar template for them: a large industry with one or two dominant corporations, with lobbyists that move in and out of government positions -- the usual chummy arrangement. It's something they can understand and control."
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/4/16/23361/3014
Posted by: Denis Du Bois | May 2, 2006 07:18 PM