No to the nuclear reactor EPR !

Despite a huge nuclear overcapacity and even though it is becoming urgent to develop a new energy consumption management and invest in renewable energy at the same time, the French Government has asked EDF to build a new nuclear reactor, EPR (European Pressurized Reactor), in Flamanville (Manche/ Normandy).

The French nuclear energy lobby wants to present the public with a fait accompli and impose the substitution of existing capacities for EPRs in the future.

However, it is obvious that choosing EPR is a wrong decision from all aspects :

Energy : France currently over-produces electrical energy and doesn't need any new plant for the next decades. Nuclear energy represents 78% of French electricity comsumption but only 15% of final energy consumption and... 4% of the world's! And it cannot replace the use of oil in transportation. It is thus not a solution to reverse climate change either.

Economy : this extremely expensive project (billions of euros) will delay the necessary redeployment of the French industry without addressing its difficulties.

Social aspects : the increasing demand for renewable energy will help create many more jobs and will be more adapted to the future than nuclear energy. For the same investment, a wind power program would lead to twice the amount of electricity production and would create 5 times more jobs than the building of the EPR

Environment : EPR is neither providing any response to the safety nor to waste management problems which will burden future generations.

Because we refuse the perpetuation of nuclear threat on the planet;
Because we deny the French nuclear lobby the right to impose a new reactor on us (French people and the rest of the world);
Because we reject the confusion between state service to the public ("service public d'état") and nuclear lobbying interest;
Because we know this useless investment will end up as a burden on consumers and future generations in France and elsewhere;
Because we want a future made of clean, decentralized, safe and renewable energies;

Together, let's say NO to the EPR and support the anti-EPR great gathering in Cherbourg on April 15th-16th, 2006

Stop the EPR nuclear reactor