<A Better Gas Tax? The Oil Drum From Botswana to New England - a different story>
<Countdown to €100 Oil: €70 Oil The Oil Drum: Europe Andris Piebalgs : getting a sense of proportion>

336 comments on France and Italy: is nuclear power the way for energy independence?

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version

sofistek on March 25, 2008 - 1:39am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

How much of its uranium does France import? I'm just interested to know how much energy independence France actually has.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Boof on March 25, 2008 - 1:43am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

75% from Niger I hear. Just like Saddam was supposed to. Don't know the amounts.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
sofistek on March 25, 2008 - 2:34am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

As a former French colony, I suppose France thinks Niger is a fairly safe bet but it's hardly energy independence. I keep reading this (energy independence) about France's nuclear project but it just doesn't ring true if they have to import most or all of their fuel source. I suppose they have their fingers crossed that unrestricted global trade will go on for some time.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Kiashu on March 25, 2008 - 6:29am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Iraq, Egypt and Nigeria used to be British colonies, Venezuela a Spanish colony, Libya Italian, and... yet...

If I'm building a reactor that I expect to last 30-50 years, I want to make sure I've got fuel for it for that long. Or at least half that long.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
AlanfromBigEasy on March 25, 2008 - 8:46am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Occasional "visits' by the French Foreign Legion keep Chad, Niger, etc. more French than most former colonies.

In addition, one can store a LOT of urabium in a small volume (and I suspect that France has several years worth stored) and France is reprocessing (successfully) limited amounts of spent fuel, another source of reactor fuel.

Alan

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
emdeef on March 26, 2008 - 8:50am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

According to this paper, Canada is the number one source, Niger second.

http://www.uic.com.au/nip28.htm

Comments can no longer be added to this story.
advancednano on March 26, 2008 - 2:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The author and editor of the original article have not addressed the point that their comparison of France and Italy ignores a 21% variance.
France's GDP is 21% larger than Italy.
So using similar amounts of coal or other energy is ignoring that France has 21% more GDP to support.
The overall level of nuclear as part of overall energy is represented by that 21% of GDP.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

336 comments on France and Italy: is nuclear power the way for energy independence?

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

| Show without comments | PDF version