Congress/Nuclear Power - Expert: 'French Model' for U.S. Reactor 'Renaissance' is a Hoax

Leading European Industry Expert says he'll debunk "Myth of French Nuclear Model" for U.S.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Yves Marignac, a leading international consultant on nuclear energy issues and the executive director of the energy information agency WISE-Paris, will hold a major U.S. news media briefing at 11:00 a.m. EDT today, to challenge the myth of the so-called “French nuclear model” that supposedly could serve as a blueprint for the revival of the embattled industry in the U.S.

As the U.S. Senate considers additional subsidies to the nuclear industry in its version of pending climate legislation and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) seeks public comment on weakening the rules for loan-guarantee bail-outs of proposed new reactors, Marignac is visiting the United States to meet with federal and state officials, among other groups.

He will outline how the “nuclear success story” myth that is being promoted by the U.S. nuclear industry is far removed from the reality of France’s 50-year history of technological dead-ends, failed industrial challenges and planning mistakes. Marignac will highlight how these problems have accelerated in recent years with the design flaws, construction problems and ever-escalating cost overruns now plaguing the troubled reactor projects at Olkiluoto 3 in Finland and Flamanville-3 in France.

Yves Marignac is executive director of the energy information agency WISE-Paris, which he joined in 1997, after four years shared between academic research at Paris-XI University and applied studies in the French nuclear institute CEA and the nuclear company STMI. His consultant work covers a wide range of nuclear issues for various institutional bodies and NGOs at the national and international level.

In 1999-2000, Marignac participated in the economic evaluation of the nuclear option commissioned by French Prime Minister (known as Charpin-Dessus-Pellat report), and in 2001 he was a co-author of a report to the European Parliament's Scientific and Technological Option Assessment (STOA) Panel on reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.

In 2005, he acted as consultant to the Commission that organized the institutional public debate on the project of the new French reactor, EPR (Flamanville-3).

Marignac is the author or co-author of a number of books and other publications, including Nuclear Power, the Great Illusion - Promises, Setbacks and Threats (October 2008) and Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing in France (April 2008).