FRANCE: Sarkozy’s Mideast trips clear the nuclear air


Now that Carla Bruni is his bride, Nicolas Sarkozy may create less fuss when he visits the Middle East. While some people mostly recall images of the unmarried couple’s earlier love holiday in Egypt, the French president, the world’s most vocal proponent of nuclear power, has recently visited multiple Arab states, offering to share France’s civilian nuclear technology with the Muslim world.

Since December, the French president has signed deals with or offered nuclear technical know-how to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.

A long-time world leader in nuclear power, France is currently relying on it for 80 percent of electricity needs. France is the second-largest producer of nuclear power in the world, after the United States. The companies that develop and build nuclear power plants are owned primarily by the French government, so Sarkozy hopes the contracts with the Arab states will boost the French economy and make his country a player on the global scene.

“People around the world are talking about reducing their dependence on fossil fuels. France is using this shift in attitude and trying to make a business out of it,” Manouchehr Takin, analyst from London’s Centre for Global Energy Studies, told New Europe, adding the France is exporting nuclear power plants.

At a time of record-breaking oil and gas prices, concern over future reserves of fossil fuels and global warming, “We should encourage the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Fadel Gheit, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, told New Europe, adding that nuclear technology does not contribute directly to global warming because it does not burn fuel or emit greenhouse gases.

“People are making a big fuss over nuclear energy, but realistically speaking, whether we like it or not, nuclear power would have to be a major part of our economic growth globally,” he said. “In order for us to maintain economic growth and avoid environmental disaster we have to think of something that can provide us with energy that is not polluting... Now we are beginning to see the cost of burning fossil fuel for the last 50 years. Nuclear is much cleaner. Of course safety is a major issue. Obviously, it has a whole set of problems.”



It’s exactly that set of problems that have alarmed critics who say Sarkozy’s willingness to share French nuclear technology with Arab states could lead to nuclear proliferation, making an already volatile Middle East more dangerous. “You have a world leader touring this region of the world promoting nuclear energy and it is shocking, but he does not see what it could be used for besides electricity production,” Mahi Sideridou, Greenpeace European Unit’s climate and energy policy director, told New Europe from Brussels.

So, is France going to help people in this region light up their houses or are they going to light up Europe as well, making it glow in the dark?

The two main problems with nuclear energy are the environmental issue connected with nuclear waste, and proliferation. “There is always this connection between the promotion of nuclear power for electricity production and using it for nuclear weapons. Seems like the world leaders don’t realise that the two go hand-in-hand and when they discuss if and how they promote nuclear projects, they are actually implicitly promoting nukes as well,” Sideridou said.

The vocal Greenpeace campaigner reminded of the “disconcerting” Iranian situation where several countries suspect Tehran of developing nuclear weapons under the guise of civil nuclear power, but that at the same time “the countries that are accusing Iran for this, mainly the US, appear having no problem of promoting nuclear power for its own benefit.”

Oppenheimer’s Gheit noted that safety is a bigger concern in the Middle East, but the technology has advanced so there are many “circuit breakers” to protect nuclear facilities. He understands the Arab states’ desire to develop nuclear power to support their economic growth. “It could also give the countries some sort of pride — have nuclear power bragging rights,” he said.

So, will Sarkozy succeed in exporting nuclear technology to the Middle East? “Well, he got married, so that’s one thing he succeeded in doing,” Gheit said. “He is a little guy and he wants to be like a giant. He wants to be the leader of Europe and come closer to the US. It’s still too early in the game to see if he wins or loses. He is trying. He’s been in countries all over the place.”



Source: | by Kostis Geropoulos

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