Blast at French nuclear site kills 1, injures 4

Oh, no. Now the French have a chance to screw things up... and they do that so well, so often. God help them if this is a serious porblem.

How delightfully vague. I'll keep an eager eye open for developments.

Nuclear "plant" is a bit mis-leading, it's a decomissioning site.

Chamade,

Have you seen 1986 French TV coverage of the Chernobyl disaster? Comidiens couldn't write such stuff, what with a map of France with arrows showing radiation stopping at the borders or simply going around the country. No wonder the nuclear history here is at best murky...

how long does it take make nucleair power centres safe? we heared a lot of promisses after the fukushima accident. people just dont take it serious. it affects lot of people, the problem does not stop at the borders of countries...

Nukes just are not worth the risks. Not only accidents, but even a conventional war could see them getting blown up. The world has seen far too much war to say it could not happen.

and they yell about Iran,Pakistan!

Nice one.

It's just a matter of time...tick tock, tick tock.

With France's nuclear plants providing more than 70% of their power supply there's no WAY they're going to look into alternative sources like other countries are pledging to do. What's more, with countries like Germany pledging to phase it out in the coming decade (and not so openly BUYING power from France) it makes nuclear power even more lucrative for the nation. I just hope they can take care.

Chamade: As far as I know France didn't have Three Mile Island issue so far... and the Fukushima's reactors were made by the US.

Another fine example of a "one Europe". Here we have Germany and Italy abruptly going to faze out nuclear power generation in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, but France is going ahead full throttle. God forbid, but what are the Germans and Italians, or rather the whole of western Europe going to do when France experiences an accident like Chernobyl or Fukushima? Most of Europe is just a doorstep away from France and although the French authorities claimed at the time that the Chernobyl cloud didn't reach France (surprise, it did), such technology has not yet been invented. And that is the scary thing of it all, the sheer arrogance and ignorance. I doubt much has been learned from the Chernobyl disaster, as was made so prominently evident when the roof tops from Daichi blew skywards. Nuclear power generation is unfortunately a necessary evil at the moment and although this latest mishap was rather minor, it is sincerely hoped, that they do everything to keep mishaps minor, for a serious accident is just an accident in waiting and the implications for Europe would be absolutely mind boggling.

Not nessasary at this moment. Technology exists.

"how long does it take make nucleair power centres safe?"

Nearly a hundred people were killed in a fuel pipeline explosion yesterday, yet none of the paranoia about being unsafe. I think that is unfair. Those people were burned to death and you have to question the safety record of the site. Why is that any less important that nuclear safety?

@forzaducati French coasts are not subject to tsunamis like Japan. Technology of French reactors is more secured than old GE technology used in Japan. French power plants are today operated by public company EDF and not by private companies. French Nuclear authority ASN is putting big pressure on EDF not to reduce safety levels in nuclear power plants. Instead of spending energy to push towards the prohibition a technology that actually presents potential risks, put the same energy to push authorities, industrials, etc... to keep sufficiently high safety levels in the control of these technologies. Precaution principle leads us back to the cave.

@ Frenchy92: Starting a plan to phase out nuclear where possible is not a move back to the cave. Hardly. It is a challenge to our science, technology, infrastructure and societal mindsets to come up with a new model for the future of energy production.

As for this accident, my condolences to the families of the deceased and wounded. Industrial accidents do seem to be inevitable - just like traffic 'accidents'.

forzaducati: "Here we have Germany and Italy abruptly going to faze out nuclear power generation in the wake of the Fukushima disaster,"

It sounds pretty ideal, but they are also buying electricity from France to compensate -- and guess where France generates that power? I'm not saying it would be easy, and I'm DEFINITELY saying Germany and Italy are heading in the right direction, I'm just saying that there are some double standards going on here and it's not so simple to judge certain nations as right and others completely in the wrong. Japan is sadly going right back to where it was before the situation in Fukushima, but at least they are PROMISING to look into alternative sources (probably just empty promises, but hey). You also do have to take into account the comments others have made in that you cannot forget the dangers of natural disasters are completely different in the two nations.