French press review 14 March 2011
Every French daily is inevitably giving centre stage to the series of natural disasters that occurred in Japan featuring in depth coverage of the earthquake and tsunami. This series of events has been dubbed Japan's worst crisis since World War II and some of the pictures featured on the front pages are staunch reminders of Japan after nuclear bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
Many pages are devoted to special reports on the tragedy, and possible effects the quake will have had on the country's economy and especially nuclear power plants, particularly that of Fukushima Daiichi, which was not far off the epicentre. The plant was seriously damaged during the series of natural disasters.
Conservative Le Figaro says the traumatised archipelago fears further catastrophes and the occurrence of a "new Chernobyl" in reference to Ukraine’s 1986 nuclear disaster which is the worst recorded nuclear catastrophe. Le Figaro takes a look at the impact of past nuclear disasters such as Sellafield in the UK in 1957 and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979. In comparison, last week’s nuclear incidents in Japan seem small. Indeed on the nuclear disaster scale Fukushima has reached 4. It's not great but it's still a far cry from Chernobyl's 7. Then again it may be too early to tell.
In any case, nuclear energy is up in the air once again. It had benefitted from better press in recent years because it did not emit CO2 thus taking part in the popular fight against carbon emissions.
Catholic La Croix notes that a number of French political parties re-opened the debate on whether nuclear is needed; the green parties, the socialists and even the centrist MoDem are apparently questioning the place of nuclear. French minister of Industry Eric Besson wanted to reassure people by saying that what happened in Japan "was serious but was not a catastrophe." That said, he is also known for backing that nuclear sector. La Croix also has an interview with Green politician Claudia Roth from Germany, who underlines the unpredictability of nuclear technology.
Leftist Libération looks at how "anti-atom" activists see Japan's reactor incidents as proof that nuclear power shouldn't be used. They’re urging countries to reconsider their positions when it comes to nuclear energy. Libération ponders on whether France is safe from such catastrophes. One thing the Japanese example has highlighted is that the improbable can always occur.
Le Figaro also has piece about how this will have a negative impact on world nuclear energy. This comes as 17 new countries are thinking of purchasing reactors. They include, Chili, Bangladesh and the UAE, which is currently building a reactor bought from South Korea.
Le Figaro asks: “Will Vietnam and Nigeria invest in the same way?” You have to bear in mind dear listener/reader that out of the four main countries who produce and sell nuclear products, France’s Areva is the most expensive but is it the safest?
The paper looks at France's EPR reactor, which's being built between China, Finland and France and wonders whether it would have better resisted such an earthquake. According to an interview in the paper with an expert this is the case. However is it really comparable? Fukushima's nuclear plant was built in the 1970s.
It is still too early to measure the extent of the damages; we’ll have to wait for the smoke to clear at Japan’s nuclear plants before we can really assess the impact Fukushima will have on nuclear energy. But as the expert also points out in the Le Figaro interview, it is also difficult to predict the damage it will have on public opinion.
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