France to look for lessons from Japan nuclear crisis

The No. 2 nuclear producer after the United States, France has stood firmly behind the industry since an earthquake set off Japan's nuclear crisis, and is unlikely to change that stance, but calls are growing for an energy policy review.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered tests on security systems at the country's 58 nuclear reactors, and he said on Wednesday the results would be made public.

"Lessons will have to be drawn from the accident in Fukushima through a total review of the security systems of our nuclear plants," Sarkozy told a cabinet meeting ahead of a special parliamentary session on the nuclear industry.

"France fully supports a similar initiative at the European level," he added, in comments released by his office.

France's unabashed pro-nuclear stance since crisis struck in Japan has stood in stark contrast with its European neighbors. Berlin immediately suspended its nuclear energy policy, while Rome signaled it would not stand in the way of any EU decision to block new nuclear power stations.

On Wednesday, Sarkozy's conservative party called an internal meeting on energy policy and cabinet ministers said a wider debate was likely given pressure from environmentalists and Green Party calls for a referendum on the matter.

The chief executive of state-owned nuclear group Areva, Anne Lauvergeon, told parliament restoring the public's confidence in nuclear power would be crucial.

"We are going to have to rebuild dialogue and confidence around nuclear energy," she said. "Let's be clear about this, restoring confidence is absolutely key for the future of our industry and we will go all out to build a dialogue on this."

As Japan battled to bring problems under control at its Fukushima Daiichi plant 240 km north of Tokyo, France called a special meeting of G20 ministers to discuss energy policy.

"PERTINENT" NUCLEAR CHOICE

France, whose 58 reactors supply 80 percent of its power needs, will not turn its back on its more than 30-year-old nuclear policy and an industry that is one of its main exports, and new projects are unlikely to be permanently derailed.

Yet Socialist Party lawmakers demanded the suspension of any plans under way to increase France's nuclear capacity, and Kosciusko-Morizet and Industry Minister Eric Besson said a national nuclear debate now looked "valid" and "inevitable."

While French officials had thus far dismissed comparisons to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, referring to Fukushima as merely an "accident," some now say Japan risks a "major catastrophe."

"One can say today that the worst case scenario is possible, and even probable, around the Fukushima plant," Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet told reporters