Anti-nuclear movement in France

From Nuclear Heritage

In the 1970s, an anti-nuclear movement in France, consisting of citizens' groups and political action committees, emerged. There were many large anti-nuclear protests and demonstrations. More recently, targeted campaigns have been conducted, mainly by Greenpeace, and Sortir du nucléaire (France) has called for an official safety inspection of Areva facilities.

1 History
2 Recent developments
3 See also
4 Materials
5 Press Releases + Media Coverage
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

History

France began a nuclear power program in the 1950s and announced a shift to the Westinghouse light water reactor in 1969. Following the 1973 oil crisis, the government announced a dramatic increase in planned nuclear capacity. These major decisions were put forward as a fait accompli, with no opportunity for meaningful parliamentary debate.^[1] An intense extra-parliamentary opposition, of citizens' groups and political action committees, emerged. In the 1970s, there were many large and dramatic anti-nuclear protests and demonstrations in France.^[1]

In 1971, 15,000 people demonstrated against French plans to locate the first light -water reactor power plant in Bugey. This was the first of a series of mass protests organized at nearly every planned nuclear site until the massive demonstration at the Superphénix breeder reactor in Creys-Malvillein in 1977 culminated in violence.^[2]

Vital Michalon died on the demonstration, he was hidden by a police weapon ^[3].

Recent developments

Demonstration in Paris 2004

In January 2004 thousands participated on a protest action in Paris against the EPR.

In 2004, an anti-nuclear protester was run over by a train carrying radioactive waste.^[4] In 2005, thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators marched to commemorate the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and demand an end to government plans to build a nuclear plant in western France.^[5]

On March 17, 2007 simultaneous protests, organised by Sortir du nucléaire (France) (Get Out of Nuclear Power), were staged in 5 French towns to protest construction of European Pressurized Reactor plants; Rennes, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, and Strasbourg.

In 2008, twenty Greenpeace activists delayed construction of a new nuclear reactor being built in Flamanville for 50 hours.^[6] In July 2008 there were a series of accidents at the French nuclear site Tricastin-Pierrelatte, and Greenpeace France launched two court cases in an effort to find out more details about these.^[7] In August 2008, Sortir du nucléaire called Areva's radioactive emissions 'very dangerous' and sought an official safety inspection of its factories.^[8]

Materials

France's Nuclear Failures (PDF) (Greenpeace)- The nuclear industry, in decline for several decades, has seized upon the climate crisis as a revival opportunity, aggressively promoting nuclear technology as a 'low-carbon' means of generating electricity and thus an important part of our future energy mix. However, nuclear power forms an expensive and dangerous distraction from the real solutions to climate change - the necessary greenhouse gas reduction targets can only be met through using the proven alternatives of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency.