French Connection

A key point in President Bush’s nuclear policy has strong ties to the French government. Areva, a French government owned, atomic energy company, will be a company that benefits from U.S. energy growth. The French government pushed ahead in the 1970’s and 1980’s while nuclear energy use in the U.S. stalled. Today France is able to supply their country with 80% power from nuclear reactor facilities.

An energy bill passed in 2005 allowed Areva to begin to operate new reactors in the United States. While proponents say that Areva’s reactors will cost 10% less to operate than other facilities and use 15% less uranium, critics question a firm owned by the French government receiving billions of dollars in U.S. government subsidies.

During the 2006 election, key lawmakers in the passing of the 2005 energy bill, received $116,227 in donations to there campaign from Areva.

Areva’s predecessors helped Saddam Hussein acquire nuclear weapons by supplying enriched uranium to a Baghdad reactor.

My initial reaction was that I was surprised to learn that we allowed a French government owned nuclear company to build reactors within our country. As a technologically advanced society, we should be pioneering these advances ourselves, not allowing another country to do it for us. This should be a domestic policy; we should not allow a foreign country to build unstable plants on our soil.

We are allowing lobbyist from a foreign country into our political arena. Former U.S. Senators who played a vital role in passing energy laws have sat, or still do sit on the board for Areva. This makes me believe that these individuals, who decline to tell reporters their salaries, were not working in the countries best interest.

Overall I believe that this is a poor move for the United States. They are allowing a foreign nation to corner the energy market, and by doing so allowing a lot of key revenue to slip away. This is very disappointing to me.