Nuclear still No. 1 in France - but for how long?

By Clare Byrne Sep 9, 2011, 15:01 GMT

Fessenheim, France - Given the widespread opposition in Germany to nuclear energy, it's ironic that the village that is home to France's oldest nuclear plant has a German name: Fessenheim.

Like many parts of the north-eastern Alsace region - which changed hands four times between France and Germany in the 75 years between the start of the Franco-Prussian war and the end of World War II - the German influence is strong in this border community of 2,200 people.

Nearly everyone can trot out a few words of German when their neighbours from across the Rhine river, which serves as a border, come shopping for wine and cheese, and vice-versa when the French take a chase across for cheap beer.

Communities such as Fessenheim, and Bremgarten, that sit across the water from each other, enjoy particularly close ties.

But the nuclear crisis that rocked Japan after it was hit by a massive earthquake six months ago has exposed a fault-line in their relations, as each considers the safety of the 33-year-old Fessenheim plant that sits between the two villages, on a canal that draws water from the Rhine to cool the reactors.

In Fessenheim, where many depend on the plant for a job, there's no small pride in the towering twin 900-watt reactors, which form the cornerstone of an ambitious programme that give France energy independence.

About 75 per cent of France's electricity is produced by the country's 58 nuclear reactors, the second-largest nuclear park in the world after the United States, which the population has historically viewed with sangfroid.

'I tell people here we have to defend our plant. It's our bread and butter,' says Audrey, the manager of a bakery on the main street in Fessenheim, as she wraps up a 'flammekueche' - a savoury Alsatian tart - for a customer.

What about Fukushima? 'It didn't have a particular effect on me,' she says.

Jean-Marc Scherrer, a retired car factory worker from the nearby village of Blodelsheim, is also unconcerned.

Leaning on the door of his car, in shorts, socks and sandals that suggest that in sartorial matters at least, his influences are German, he shrugs and says: 'It's been working for 30 years. I have no worries about it.'

Drive five minutes across the river to Bremgarten and the reaction is very different.

'When Fessenheim was built, no one here really knew what it was,' said Gisela Erhardt, a 73-year-old grandmother, who was watering her front garden in the late afternoon sun.

'They said it was nuclear. And we said, 'Yeah, OK, whatever'.'

'Now I think the whole area is against the plant. It's ancient,' she argues. 'I'm simply afraid.'

Although France has never had a major nuclear incident, Erhardt is concerned about the danger to Fessenheim from the minor earth tremors in the area.

Anti-nuclear activists say the plant's age, the area's moderate seismicity levels and the fact that nearly 100,000 people live within 20 kilometres of the plant, make for a potentially explosive mix.

In June, about 5,000 French, German and Swiss activists formed a human chain around the plant to demand its closure. Some waved placards that read 'Today in Japan, tomorrow Fessenheim.'

For German and Swiss critics, Fessenheim makes a mockery of their government's plans to progressively exit nuclear power.

The German government in May announced plans to close all Germany's 17 nuclear power plants by 2022. The government of Switzerland, which shares a border with Alsace, has also recommended decommissioning its five reactors.

If there were an accident at Fessenheim, both countries would likely be in the fallout zone.

The French Nuclear Safety Authority is reviewing the safety of all the country's reactors. In July, the authority recommended that Fessenheim's life be extended for a further 10 years, provided work was carried out to thicken the concrete floor of the No.1 reactor.

In the meantime, President Nicolas Sarkozy had vowed to plough another 1 billion euros into new-generation nuclear energy. 'There is no alternative to nuclear energy today,' he said in June.

The trouble is, most people no longer seem to share that view.

A June poll by Ifop polling company published in Le Journal du Dimanche weekly showed 62 per cent of the French supporting a phased withdrawal from nuclear power over 25 to 30 years.

Change could come more quickly than they think.

Francois Hollande, the Socialist politician whom polls show likely to beat the conservative Sarkozy in presidential elections next year, has said he would reduce France's dependence on nuclear power to 50 per cent of its electricity production by 2025.

He has also said he would close Fessenheim.