France not prepared to give up nuclear power

France said yesterday it was not ready to give up nuclear power after neighbour Germany became the first major industrialised nation to announce it would close all its reactors after the disaster in Japan.

While France “respected” the German decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022, this was not an option for the French government which views it as a “solution for the future”, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said.

“We think that for some decades at least we will not be able to do without nuclear energy,” added Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.

“But this does not mean that we should not develop alternative energy sources.”

Industry Minister Eric Besson said nuclear power allowed France to provide electricity at prices some 40 per cent cheaper than other European countries, on average.

“German households, for example, pay twice as much for their electricity,” he claimed.

The Socialist Party, however, asked that the issue be put to the French people at the occasion of presidential elections next year.

“Nuances exist within the (party) on this question,” spokesman Benoit Hamon said. Socialist leader Martine Aubry, a possible presidential candidate, had called for an end to France’s reliance on nuclear power after the accident at Japan’s Fukushima plant. Socialist Francois Hollande, who has declared his interest in the presidency, supports a phased reduction of nuclear energy use.

The French Greens, for their part, have welcomed Germany’s move.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a major policy U-turn, said earlier all 17 of the country’s nuclear reactors would be closed by 2022 at the latest. Ms Merkel said Germany could serve as a global trailblazer with its decision yesterday to phase out nuclear power by 2022 in favour of renewable energy sources.

Ms Merkel said the “fundamental” rethink of energy policy in the world’s number four economy, which was prompted by the disaster in March at Japan’s Fukushima plant, opened up new opportunities for business as well as climate protection.

“We believe we as a country can be a trailblazer for a new age of renewable energy sources,” she told reporters.

“We can be the first major industrialised country that achieves the transition to renewable energy with all the opportunities – for exports, development, technology, jobs – it carries with it.”

The plan, hammered out by Ms Merkel’s ruling coalition in marathon overnight negotiations, will see Germany shutter all 17 of its nuclear reactors, eight of which are currently off the electricity grid, within 11 years.

“We want the electricity of the future to be safer and at the same time reliable and affordable,” Ms Merkel told reporters as she accepted the findings of an expert commission on nuclear power she appointed in March.

“We learned from Fukushima that we have to deal differently with risks,” added the chancellor, whose popularity had suffered over her earlier pro-nuclear stance.

Seven of the eight reactors already offline are the country’s oldest, which the government shut down for three months pending a safety probe after the Fukushima emergency.

The eighth is the Kruemmel plant, in northern Germany, which has been offline for years because of technical problems.

Six further reactors will shut down by the end of 2021 and the three most modern will stop operating by the end of 2022.

Yesterday’s decision, which could run into legal challenges from energy companies, means Germany will have to find the 22 per cent of its electricity needs that were covered by nuclear power from other sources.