Greenwire: French President Nicolas Sarkozy today called on international development agencies to begin financing nuclear power projects in the developing world, saying such projects have been unfairly ignored in the past.
“I can’t understand why nuclear power is ostracized by international finance,” he said. “It’s the stuff of scandal.”
Agencies like the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and others must make civilian nuclear uses a priority, he said in welcoming delegates from 60 nations to a two-day conference promoting peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
France has the world’s second-largest nuclear power sector, supplying 75 percent of its electricity. The state-owned nuclear firms, EDF and Areva, are both major players in developing next-generation nuclear plants.
Sarkozy will advance France’s spread of the technology — and the lucrative contracts that may follow — by creating an International Institute of Nuclear Energy, which will include an international nuclear school, he added (Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere, AFP/Yahoo News, March 8). – PV