WORLD> Europe
France to build second generation nuclear reactor
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-04 00:07

LE CREUSOT, France  -- France will build a second new-generation nuclear reactor, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday, pledging a "new industrial revolution" in an era in which fossil fuels have grown too expensive.

France -- the country most reliant on nuclear power -- has been constructing its first European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR, on the Normandy coast, and it is expected to go into service in 2012.

EPR reactors are meant eventually to replace the aging reactors around the world whose designs date from decades ago. The Normandy site is one of only two EPRs in the world currently under construction; the other is in Finland.

A decision about where to build a second French EPR will be made in 2009ozy said. "This is a historic chance for development."

France's Green Party and environmental groups oppose the building of EPRs, saying they are dangerous and costly and do not address root causes of global warming and shrinking world resources.

France Nature Environment called it a "catastrophic sign" for France's presidency of the European Union, which began this week and runs through the end of this year. The group lamented that Sarkozy made the announcement the same day that EU environment ministers were meeting outside Paris.

"The fight against climate disruption is unfortunately serving as a commercial argument for promoting false remedies such as nuclear energy," the group's spokesman Arnaud Gossement said in a statement.