Skip to main content

60 Minutes to Profile French Nuclear Industry

By Eric McErlain
According to my colleague in media relations, Steve Kerekes, 60 Minutes is putting the finishing touches on a report on the French nuclear energy industry. Though it won't run this Sunday, look for it to air sometime in the next few weeks.

For more on the French nuclear program, which provides 80% of that nation's electricity, visit the World Nuclear Association.

UPDATE: My boss, Scott Peterson, sent in the following note:
Let's not forget the the French program is modeled after the U.S. program, using U.S. technology as its base. Despite the fact that the French have gone forward with a state electricity company to build 57 (?) reactors, the U.S. still produced more electricity from nuclear energy than France and Japan combined!
NEI also maintains a library of nuclear statistics.

Technorati tags: , , , , , 60 Minutes,

Comments

Anonymous said…
Jerome Guillet has written a good summary of the French nuclear power program.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/10/182655/427
June 30, 2006 at 2:52 PM
Anonymous said…
I suspect the program will be negative. I can't imagine 60 Minutes doing a positive show on nuclear power.

It will be interesting to see if they will be negative about the French program or negative about the US program because it is perceived to be different from the US program, thus putting the US program in a bad light. Another possibility is that the French program will be used only as a stage prop for introducing the persecution of the French regulators for not becoming hysterical about the Chernoble fallout.

I am sure that they will not mention the French scientific establishment's official trashing of the LNT for ionizing radiation.
June 30, 2006 at 3:43 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fluor Invests in NuScale

By
You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap...
1 comment
Read more

Wednesday Update

By
From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

By
Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...
Post a Comment
Read more