Hosting a meeting at the headquarters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on 8 March that international organizations such as the World Bank should begin financing the non-military use of nuclear energy. “I don’t understand and I don’t accept the exclusion of nuclear energy from international finance,” Sarkozy, a proponent of nuclear power, said at the opening of a two-day conference in Paris on making atomic power more widespread.
Representatives from some 60 nations gathered at the Paris nuclear energy conference. Iran, whose nuclear program is the target of international concern, was not invited to the talks. But Syria, whose nuclear interests have stirred controversy, was present.
The French President noted that international organizations do not finance nuclear energy. “This condemns countries to using energies that are more expensive and dirtier,” Sarkozy said.
France has 58 nuclear reactors - and two modern EPR reactors under construction - which currently meet about four-fifths of the country’s electricity demand. He said that financing for countries that want to build nuclear reactors would help France’s nuclear energy industry, including Areva and EDF.
The French president told more than 700 conference participants from 65 countries that “the responsible development of non-military nuclear energy” was vital to combating global warming. Sarkozy made a number of proposals to promote the availability and use of nuclear power, including the allocation of carbon credits to non-carbon emitting energy projects after 2013.
He also said that France plans to set up an international institute of nuclear energy to produce skilled engineers and technicians, in addition to establishing a Franco-Chinese centre with a campus in Canton. Sarkozy also proposed the creation of an independent authority on nuclear safety and an evaluation system to rate available reactors on their safety.
Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said all responsible countries have a right to civil nuclear technology. “All countries have an equal right to development and to growth. All have an equal right to energy, which is needed to achieve these,” he said at the conference. “All countries, provided they respect their obligations to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, have an equal right to civil nuclear (energy).” “We do not believe in negative growth,” he added. “As General [Charles] de Gaulle said, the solutions to tomorrow’s problems will not be solved by going back to oil lamps and sailing ships.” (De Gaulle was the leader of Free France during the Second World War and the first President of the Fifth French Republic). Sharing civil nuclear technology among the nations of the world will be necessary if the challenges of the contemporary world are to be met. “We all realize that we won’t be able to meet these [development and growth] objectives with only renewable energies,” Fillon said. “Civil nuclear technology is part of the response. It is not a miracle solution, it is not the only solution. In France, nuclear is part of a strategy which comprises three priorities: the strengthening of our nuclear capacity, the development of renewable energy and the encouragement of energy efficiency.” He pointed out that the French model was not the only model, and that France needed to encounter different ways of thinking and to exchange experiences with other countries.
Of course, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons is essential. “We would guarantee broad international cooperation with all countries that wish to develop civil nuclear and which take all the measures necessary to prevent the turning of this technology to military ends.”
Fillon identified four areas in which international cooperation was “essential”. They are safety, funding, training and security of fuel supply. Regarding the last, he highlighted that France supports the creation of a nuclear fuel bank under the aegis of the International Atomic Energy Agency.