ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 looks at the case of nuclear safety policies and politics in France. France has the highest proportion of electricity supplied by nuclear power in the world, and has and hopes to continue to export its nuclear technology. This chapter looks at the political context in which nuclear safety regulation has developed, the events and institutions that have been associated with the development of nuclear energy safety policy. The impact on French nuclear energy outcomes is assessed. France has engaged with a programme of retrofitting existing reactors with safety measures designed to mitigate the effects of severe accidents. Its current reactor design, the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) includes several prominent safety features that are unique to its design.
If the French case is anything to go by we can say that countries with hierarchical systems are best placed to deliver nuclear power, but that in France this hierarchy needs to absorb egalitarian pressures. The regulatory result can be seen as ‘weak’ ecological modernisation, involving top-down regulatory pressure for more safety and the relative independence of the regulators from pressures from the nuclear industry to water down safety improvements.
