France's Election Heats Up over Nuclear Power

For decades the French political elite has agreed that nuclear energy is the best way to power the nation, and today France gets nearly three-quarters of its electricity from its 58 reactors—a far greater share than any other country. In the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan last March, though, unified support for nuclear power is crumbling.

On Nov. 15 the opposition Socialist and Green parties issued a joint pledge to close 24 reactors by 2025. The statement was a compromise between the Socialists, who seek to boost use of renewable energy, and the Greens, who want to ban nukes. Under the proposal, the country’s oldest plant, 33-year-old Fessenheim near the Swiss border, would be shut down immediately if the Socialists win the presidential election next spring. The plan is “about moving progressively away from all-oil for transport and all-nuclear for electricity,” Socialist leader François Hollande wrote in an opinion piece in Le Monde.