Anti-nuclear movement in France
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In the 1970s, an anti-nuclear movement in France, consisting of citizens' groups and political action committees, emerged. Between 1975 and 1977, some 175,000 people protested against
nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced ...
in ten demonstrations.Herbert P. Kitschelt
Political Opportunity and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies
''British Journal of Political Science'', Vol. 16, 1984, p. 71.
In 1972, the anti-nuclear weapons movement maintained a presence in the Pacific, largely in response to
French nuclear testing ''Gerboise Bleue'' (; ) was the codename of the first French nuclear test. It was conducted by the Nuclear Experiments Operational Group (GOEN), a unit of the Joint Special Weapons Command on 13 February 1960, at the Saharan Military Experimen ...
there. Activists, including David McTaggart from Greenpeace, defied the French government by sailing small vessels into the test zone and interrupting the testing program.Paul Lewis
David McTaggart, a Builder of Greenpeace, Dies at 69
''The New York Times'', March 24, 2001.
Lawrence S. Wittner
Nuclear Disarmament Activism in Asia and the Pacific, 1971-1996
''The Asia-Pacific Journal'', Vol. 25-5-09, June 22, 2009.
In Australia, scientists issued statements demanding an end to the tests; unions refused to load French ships, service French planes, or carry French mail; and consumers boycotted French products. In 1985 the Greenpeace ship '' Rainbow Warrior'' was bombed and sunk by the French
DGSE The General Directorate for External Security (french: link=no, Direction générale de la Sécurité extérieure, DGSE) is France's foreign intelligence agency, equivalent to the British MI6 and the American CIA, established on 2 April 1982. ...
in
Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, as it prepared for another protest of
nuclear test Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, Nuclear weapon yield, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detona ...
ing in French military zones. One crew member,
Fernando Pereira Fernando Pereira (10 May 1950 – 10 July 1985) was a freelance Portuguese-Dutch photographer, who drowned when French intelligence (DGSE) detonated a bomb and sank the ''Rainbow Warrior'', owned by the environmental organisation Greenpeace on ...
of
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, photographer, drowned on the sinking ship. In January 2004, up to 15,000 anti-nuclear protesters marched in Paris against a new generation of nuclear reactors, the
European Pressurised Reactor The EPR is a third generation pressurised water reactor design. It has been designed and developed mainly by Framatome (part of Areva between 2001 and 2017) and Électricité de France (EDF) in France, and Siemens in Germany. In Europe this rea ...
(EPR).Thousands march in Paris anti-nuclear protest
''ABC News'', January 18, 2004.
On March 17, 2007, simultaneous protests, organised by Sortir du nucléaire, were staged in 5 French towns to protest construction of EPR plants. After Japan's 2011
Fukushima nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 ...
, thousands staged anti-nuclear protests around France, demanding reactors be closed. Protesters' demands were focused on getting France to shut its oldest nuclear power station at Fessenheim. Many people also protested at the
Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant The Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant located in Grand Est in the Cattenom commune, France, on the Moselle River between Thionville (7 km upstream) and Trier (48 km downstream). It is close to the city of Luxembo ...
, France's second most powerful. In November 2011, thousands of anti-nuclear protesters delayed a train carrying radioactive waste from France to Germany. Many clashes and obstructions made the journey the slowest one since the annual shipments of radioactive waste began in 1995. Also in November 2011, a French court fined nuclear power company Électricité de France €1.5m and jailed two senior employees for spying on Greenpeace, including hacking into Greenpeace's computer systems. The sentence was overturned by an appeals court in February 2013. In March 2014, police arrested 57 Greenpeace protesters who used a truck to break through security barriers and enter the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in eastern France. The activists hung antinuclear banners, but France's nuclear safety authority said that the plant's security had not been compromised. President Hollande has promised to close Fessenheim by 2016, but Greenpeace wants immediate closure.


History

In France, opposition to nuclear weapons has been somewhat muted since they are perceived as a national symbol and as securing French independence. The strongest anti-nuclear opposition has emerged over nuclear power "as a reaction to the centralising traditions of the French state and the technocratic trends of modern society". France began a
nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced ...
program in the 1950s and announced a shift to the Westinghouse light water reactor in 1969. Following the 1973 oil crisis, the government announced a dramatic increase in planned nuclear capacity. These major decisions were put forward as a ''fait accompli'', with no opportunity for meaningful parliamentary debate.Nelkin, Dorothy and Michael Pollak, "Ideology as Strategy: The Discourse of the Anti-Nuclear Movement in France and Germany" ''Science, Technology, & Human Values'', Vol. 5, No. 30 (Winter, 1980), p. 3. An intense extra-parliamentary opposition, of citizens' groups and political action committees, emerged. In the 1970s, there were many large and dramatic anti-nuclear protests and demonstrations in France. In 1971, 15,000 people demonstrated against French plans to locate the first light -water reactor power plant in Bugey. This was the first of a series of mass protests organized at nearly every planned nuclear site until the massive demonstration at the Superphénix breeder reactor in Creys-Malvillein in 1977 culminated in violence. Between 1975 and 1977, some 175,000 people protested against nuclear power in ten demonstrations. In 1972, the anti-nuclear weapons movement maintained a presence in the Pacific, largely in response to
French nuclear testing ''Gerboise Bleue'' (; ) was the codename of the first French nuclear test. It was conducted by the Nuclear Experiments Operational Group (GOEN), a unit of the Joint Special Weapons Command on 13 February 1960, at the Saharan Military Experimen ...
there. Activists, including David McTaggart from Greenpeace, defied the French government by sailing small vessels into the test zone and interrupting the testing program. In Australia, thousands joined protest marches in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney. Scientists issued statements demanding an end to the tests; unions refused to load French ships, service French planes, or carry French mail; and consumers boycotted French products. In Fiji, activists formed an Against Testing on Mururoa organization. On 18 January 1982, Swiss activist and eco-terrorist Chaïm Nissim fired five rockets, obtained from the
Red Army Faction The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...
through Carlos the Jackal, on the Superphénix nuclear plant, then under construction. Rockets were launched at the incomplete containment building and caused damage, missing the reactor's empty core. In 1985 the Greenpeace ship '' Rainbow Warrior'' was bombed and sunk by the French
DGSE The General Directorate for External Security (french: link=no, Direction générale de la Sécurité extérieure, DGSE) is France's foreign intelligence agency, equivalent to the British MI6 and the American CIA, established on 2 April 1982. ...
in
Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, as it prepared for another protest of
nuclear test Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, Nuclear weapon yield, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detona ...
ing in French military zones. One crew member,
Fernando Pereira Fernando Pereira (10 May 1950 – 10 July 1985) was a freelance Portuguese-Dutch photographer, who drowned when French intelligence (DGSE) detonated a bomb and sank the ''Rainbow Warrior'', owned by the environmental organisation Greenpeace on ...
of
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
, photographer, drowned on the sinking ship while attempting to recover his photographic equipment. Two members of DGSE were captured and sentenced, but eventually repatriated to France in a controversial affair. Following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, radiation levels were much higher than originally thought, and some farmers in the eastern part of France had to plow under tainted lettuce and cabbage crops. French authorities at the time of the Chernobyl disaster were "criticised for a lack of transparency, with many interpreting officials' declarations as saying that radioactive pollution had not crossed the border from Germany into France".


2000s

In January 2004, up to 15,000 anti-nuclear protesters marched in Paris against a new generation of nuclear reactors, the
European Pressurised Reactor The EPR is a third generation pressurised water reactor design. It has been designed and developed mainly by Framatome (part of Areva between 2001 and 2017) and Électricité de France (EDF) in France, and Siemens in Germany. In Europe this rea ...
(EPR). Also in 2004, an anti-nuclear protester, Sebastien Briat, was run over by a train carrying
radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...
. In 2005, thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators marched to commemorate the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and demand an end to government plans to build a nuclear plant in western France. On March 17, 2007, simultaneous protests, organised by Sortir du nucléaire (Get Out of Nuclear Power), were staged in 5 French towns to protest construction of EPR plants; Rennes,
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
,
Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
,
Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...
, and Strasbourg. On April 26, 2007 (the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster) around 30 protesters blocked entrances and chained themselves to cranes at the EPR site in Flamanville, some remaining on the site for 24 hours. A truck was also parked in front of the entrance to block its access. In 2008, twenty Greenpeace activists delayed construction of a new nuclear reactor being built in Flamanville for 50 hours. In July 2008 there were a series of accidents at the French nuclear site Tricastin-Pierrelatte, and Greenpeace France launched two court cases in an effort to find out more details about these. In August 2008, ''Sortir du nucléaire'' called Areva's radioactive emissions 'very dangerous' and sought an official safety inspection of its factories.


Post-Fukushima

Following the
2011 Fukushima I nuclear accidents The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...
, around 1,000 people took part in a protest against nuclear power in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
on March 20. Most of the protests, however, are focused on the closure of the
Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant The Fessenheim Nuclear Power Plant is located in the Fessenheim commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France, north east of the Mulhouse urban area, within of the border with Germany, and approximately from Switzer ...
, where some 3,800 French and Germans demonstrated on April 8 and April 25. Thousands staged anti-nuclear protests around France, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl and after Japan's
Fukushima nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 ...
, demanding reactors be closed. Protesters' demands were focused on getting France to shut its oldest nuclear power station at Fessenheim, which lies in a densely populated part of France, less than two kilometres from Germany and around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Switzerland. Around 2,000 people also protested at the Cattenom nuclear plant, France's second most powerful, in the Mosel region to the northwest of Strasbourg. Protesters in southwestern France staged another demonstration in the form of a mass picnic in front of the Blayais nuclear reactor, also in memory of Chernobyl. In France's northwestern region of Brittany, around 800 people staged a good-humoured march in front of the Brennilis experimental heavy-water atomic plant that was built in the 1960s. It was taken offline in 1985 but its dismantling is still not completed after 25 years. Three months after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, thousands of anti-nuclear campaigners protested in Paris. On June 26, 2011, around 5,000 protesters gathered near Fessenheim nuclear power plant, demanding the plant be shut down immediately. Demonstrators from France and Germany came to Fessenheim and formed a human chain along the road. Protesters claim that the plant is vulnerable to flooding and earthquakes. Fessenheim has become a flashpoint in renewed debate over nuclear safety in France after the Fukushima accident. The plant is operated by French power group EDF. In November 2011, a French court fined nuclear power giant Électricité de France €1.5m and jailed two senior employees for spying on anti-nuclear group Greenpeace, including hacking into Greenpeace's computer systems. Greenpeace was awarded €500,000 in damages. Although EDF claimed that a security firm had only been employed to monitor Greenpeace, the court disagreed, jailing the head and deputy head of EDF's nuclear security operation for three years each. In November 2011, thousands of anti-nuclear protesters delayed a train carrying radioactive waste from France to Germany. Many clashes and obstructions made the journey the slowest one since the annual shipments of radioactive waste began in 1995. The shipment, the first since Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster, faced large protests in France where activists damaged the train tracks. Thousands of people in Germany also interrupted the train's journey, forcing it to proceed at a snail's pace, covering 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) in 109 hours. More than 200 people were reported injured in the protests and several arrests were made. As of November 2011, France is locked in a national debate over a partial
nuclear phaseout A nuclear power phase-out is the discontinuation of usage of nuclear power for energy production. Often initiated because of concerns about nuclear power, phase-outs usually include shutting down nuclear power plants and looking towards fossil ...
. Opinion polls show support for atomic energy has dropped since Fukushima. Forty-percent of the French "are 'hesitant' about nuclear energy while a third are in favor and 17 percent are against, according to a survey by pollster Ifop published November 13". Following François Hollande's victory in the
2012 Presidential Election This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *3–4 January ...
, there may be a partial nuclear phaseout in France, with his Socialist party in favour of closing the oldest 24 reactors by 2025. On December 5, 2011, nine Greenpeace activists cut through a fence at the
Nogent Nuclear Power Plant The Nogent Nuclear Power Plant is located in the French commune of Nogent-sur-Seine, on the right bank of the Seine, in the west of the Aube department. It is located to the west of Troyes and south-east of Paris. The plant houses two reactors ...
. They scaled the roof of the domed reactor building and unfurled a "Safe Nuclear Doesn't Exist" banner before attracting the attention of security guards. Two activists remained at large for four hours. On the same day, two more campaigners breached the perimeter of the
Cruas Nuclear Power Plant The Cruas Nuclear Power Station is a nuclear power plant located in Cruas and Meysse communes, Ardèche next to the Rhône River in France. The site is 35 km north of Tricastin Nuclear Power Center and near the town of Montélimar. The si ...
, escaping detection for more than 14 hours, while posting videos of their sit-in on the internet. On the first anniversary of the
Fukushima nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 ...
, organisers of French anti-nuclear demonstrations claim 60,000 supporters formed a human chain 230 kilometres long, stretching from Lyon to Avignon. In March 2014, police arrested 57 Greenpeace protesters who used a truck to break through security barriers and enter the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in eastern France. The activists hung antinuclear banners, but France's nuclear safety authority said that the plant's security had not been compromised. President Hollande had promised to close the plant by 2016, but this has been pushed back until the
Flamanville 3 The Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant is located at Flamanville, Manche, France on the Cotentin Peninsula. The power plant houses two pressurized water reactors (PWRs) that produce 1.3 GWe each and came into service in 1986 and 1987, respective ...
unit comes on line sometime in late 2018.


See also

* Dominique Voynet *
France and weapons of mass destruction France is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, but is not known to possess or develop any chemical or biological weapons. France was the fourth country to test an independently de ...
*
Nuclear power in France Since the mid 1980s, the largest source of electricity in France is Nuclear power, with a generation of 379.5 TWh in 2019 and a total electricity production of . In 2018, the nuclear share was 71.67%, the highest percentage in the world. Sin ...
* Stéphane Lhomme *
Mycle Schneider Mycle Schneider (pronounced ''Michael'', /ˈmaɪkəl/) (born 1959 in Cologne) is a Paris-based nuclear energy consultant and anti-nuclear activist. He is the lead author of '' The World Nuclear Industry Status Reports''. He has advised members o ...
* André Larivière *
Solange Fernex Solange Fernex (15 April 1934 – 11 September 2006) was a French environmental and pacifist activist and politician. One of the environmental movement's pioneers in Europe, she helped found the French Green Party and was a member of the European ...
* Jean-Luc Bennahmias *
Monique Sené Monique Sené (born February 14, 1936) (née Moirez) is a nuclear physicist and one of the co-founders of the '' Groupement des scientifiques pour l'information sur l'énergie nucléaire'' (GSIEN) (Association of Scientists for Information on Nu ...
* Lanza del Vasto * List of anti-nuclear power groups * List of Nuclear-Free Future Award recipients *
Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents These are lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents. Main lists * List of attacks on nuclear plants * List of Chernobyl-related articles * List of civilian nuclear accidents * List of civilian radiation accidents * List of ...
* Groupement des scientifiques pour l'information sur l'énergie nucléaire (Association of Scientists for Information on Nuclear Energy)


References


Further reading

*Touraine, Alain, Zsuzska Hegedus, Francois Dubet, and Michael Wieviorka (1982). ''Anti-nuclear protest: The Opposition to Nuclear Energy in France'', Cambridge University Press.


External links


Thousands protest against N-power: Demonstrations across FranceUranium Leaks Rattle France's Nuclear Support, Anger Villagers


{{Anti-nuclear movement
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
Nuclear energy in France Nuclear history of France Nuclear safety in France Politics of France Protests in France Environmental protests in France