France says no plans to pull out of nuclear power

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

France says no plans to pull out of nuclear power

PARIS, July 4 (Reuters) - The French government said on Wednesday it 
had no plans to follow Germany and end its reliance on nuclear power.

``Our situation and therefore our energy policy is different,'' 
junior Industry Minister Christian Pierret told a colloquium in Paris 
entitled ``The end of nuclear power.'' 

``France gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, 
Germany gets 30 percent...France has no oil, very little gas and its 
coal seams were already running  out in the 1950s. Its hydroelectric 
resources are used to the full and other non-fossil energy sources 
are in their infancy,'' Pierret said. 

He added that France's nuclear industry had given birth to three 
``worldclass'' companies -- power generator Electricite de France 
(EdF), nuclear fuels group Cogema and nuclear engineering company 
Framatome. 

``They export, they create wealth and therefore create jobs,'' he 
said. 

Framatome and Germany's Siemens signed an agreement on Wednesday 
merging their nuclear activities. Siemens said on Tuesday Germany's 
decision to phase out nuclear power by around 2030 would not 
jeopardise the merger.   

FRANCE SEES SCANT ALTERNATIVES TO NUCLEAR 

Pierret said it would be wrong to ``idealise'' any one source of 
energy. But he rejected calls for France to switch to greater use of 
combined-cycle power plants fired by gas, which is expected to be in 
abundant supply worldwide for up to 50 years. 

``A short while ago, experts from around the world were forecasting 
sustainable low prices for oil and therefore for gas. They have 
tripled in less than a year,'' he said. 

He said France planned to invest more in renewable resources, as an 
alternative to nuclear power, but said the decree obliging EdF to 
purchase power from renewable-fired generators of over 12 megawatts 
had not yet been adopted. 

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said on May 29 the government planned to 
invest two billion French francs ($291.3 million) a year in 
developing renewable resources over the next few years. 

``Up until 1999 we only had marginal recourse to solar and wind power 
or geothermal energy,'' Jospin said. 

European Union figures show France's use of renewables excluding 
hydropower to be well below the average in the 15-nation bloc and 
likely to stay that way for the next decade. 

In 1997 renewables contributed 2.2 percent to France's fuel mix, 
compared to an EU average of 3.2 percent and Austria in the top spot 
with 10.7 percent. 

Forecasts for 2010 show France with 8.9 percent of electricity 
derived from renewables, compared to the EU average of 12.5 percent 
and leader Denmark's 29.0 percent. 

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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
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