France hit by anti-nuclear protests

Thousands of people filled the streets of five French cities today to protest plans to build the next generation of nuclear reactors – fuel-efficient but seen by anti-nuclear activists as a relaunching of France’s nuclear energy programme.

Organisers put the number of protesters in the western city of Rennes at 30,000 to 40,000 – a figure that could not be officially confirmed. The collective Get out of Nuclear put the number in Lyon and Toulouse at 10,000 and claimed another 5,000 protesters in Lille, in the north, as well as in the eastern city of Strasbourg.

The simultaneous protests organised by the collective, made up of hundreds of associations, was a way to get the issue in the eye of candidates in the April-May two-round presidential elections.

Only the Greens party, whose candidate is Dominique Voynet, is resolutely opposed to the third-generation European pressurised-water reactor, or EPR, technology that aims to use 17% less fuel.

The first such reactor is to be built in Flamanville, in northern France, and will be operational by 2012 – when the new president’s five-year mandate ends.

Electricite de France, the state electrical company, has said the EPR reactor would pave the way for other plants to adopt such technology by 2020.