America Not Only Country That Ignores Will of the People

In a move that could come right out of an American political newscast, Eric Besson, France's Industry Minister, announced his opposition to the French public's demand that the country eliminate its reliance on nuclear power. France receives roughly three fourths of its electricity from nuclear power, so it's not entirely clear whether the nation could even replace its nuclear power with another source, at least in the short term. Nonetheless, 60 percent of participants in a Liberation newspaper poll said they believe France should gradually walk away from nuclear power. Thirty-five percent are against dropping nuclear power. The poll comes a little more than three months after Japan was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami, which combined to knock out power and backup generators at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. The lack of power kept the cooling systems from operating, leading to a massive meltdown in several of the plant's reactors. People in Japan still have no idea where the safety line exists between the hot zone and the safe zone, as trust between the public and the government is dropping. French citizens are wary of a similar fate befalling them. The incident in Japan has reminded much of Europe (though, unsurprisingly, not the United States) that every nuclear reactor is one slip-up away from contaminating a large swath of the population with radiation. A majority of French citizens would rather not melt away, it seems. Besson thinks that the cost to change over would be too high. He estimated that costs for electricity would rise 50 to 60 percent if France walked away from nuclear power, a number he feels would be too high for the French public to stomach. If they were to dump nuclear power, they would not be the first European nation to do so. Germany, Switzerland, and Italy have all voted or announced plans to phase out of nuclear power in the coming years.