France To Invest One Billion Euros In Nuclear Power...

France To Invest One Billion Euros In Nuclear Power

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1654708&SM=1

(RTTNews) - French President Nicholas Sarkozy announced Monday that his government has decided to invest one billion euros ($1.4 billion) in nuclear power despite the safety concerns triggered by the recent quake-induced nuclear disaster at Japan's Fukushima power plant.
"We are going to devote a billion euros to the nuclear program of the future, particularly fourth-generation technology," Sarkozy told reporters at a news conference held Monday.
"We are also going to release substantial resources from the big loan to strengthen research in the sphere of nuclear safety," he said, adding that abandoning nuclear energy "makes no sense" as there is "no alternative to nuclear energy today."
Sarkozy also dismissed safety concerns triggered by the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, pointing that French nuclear "power stations are more expensive because they are safer." He also pledged an investment of 1.35 billion euros in renewable energy, stressing that his government was still investing "massively" in that sector.
On Sunday, hundreds of anti-nuclear demonstrators had formed a human chain around France's oldest nuclear power plant in the northeastern city of Fessenheim, near the border with Germany. They called for the immediate shutdown of the plant's number one reactor, which has been in operation since 1977, stressing that it was venerable to earthquakes and floods.
France depends on its 58 nuclear reactors for almost 80% of the country's power requirements. It is currently the world's largest exporter of electricity generated from nuclear sources. France, which is currently holds presidencies of G8 and G20 industrial groups, had said in wake of the Fukushima disaster that safety and not funding should be the primary concern of the country's nuclear industry from now on.