Europe's nuclear power industry yesterday won an important boost when
Electricite de France, the state-owned French electricity group, announced it
would build a prototype euros 3bn next- generation plant on the Normandy coast. France, which depends on nuclear power for 80% of its energy, is to build a
new atomic reactor which EDF says is safer, cheaper and more environmentally
friendly than those in use. The French decision to go ahead with the European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR)
comes as Britain, spurred by Tony Blair, is rethinking the nuclear option in the
face of soaring oil prices, dwindling North Sea oil and gas reserves and slow
progress in developing renewables. In a move that horrified anti-nuclear campaigners Pierre Gadonneix, chairman
of EDF, said the group would seek swift planning permission for the first EPR it
plans to build at Flamanville, south- west of Cherbourg. It will be built on the same site as an existing nuclear plant.
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