Europe's Rift Over Energy Is Widened by France
By JAMES KANTER
Published: March 21, 2011
BRUSSELS — The French energy minister on Tuesday strongly defended the use of nuclear energy, highlighting a widening rift in Europe over the future of the technology since the crisis at reactors in Japan.
The energy minister, Éric Besson, said it was his “profound conviction that nuclear energy will stay in Europe and the world one of the core energies in the 21st century.” He was speaking in Brussels after a meeting of European Union energy ministers to discuss the safety of the 143 reactors across the Union’s 27 member states.
The ministers agreed that safety checks would remain voluntary, but did not agree on how to structure tests for reactors of such varied designs and in such different locations. They said that the stress tests would be discussed at a meeting of E.U. heads of government this week and that the tests should be done before year’s end.
A renewed push to limit nuclear energy has been led by Germany, which still gets about a quarter of its energy from nuclear, and Austria, which banned nuclear energy in the late 1970s.
France and Britain have defended the technology to ensure that they can supply enough electricity without depending on imports of fossil fuels while decreasing emissions of greenhouse gases.
France relies on nuclear power for about 80 percent of its electricity and is a major exporter of nuclear technology. Britain generates only around 18 percent of its electricity from nuclear.
Last week, the German authorities ordered operations at the seven oldest reactors in the country to be halted for three months for safety checks.
