Why France is opposed to nuclear disarmament

As French physicist, Dominque Lalanne, pointed out during at talk at the recent Sortir du Nucléaire conference in Colmar, France is quietly opposed to atomic disarmament whatever the public posture. Nuclear weapons have been equated with power in Europe ever since the conclusion of World War II (the U.K. also posseses nuclear weapons, Germany and Italy do not). In France, the president, currently Nicolas Sarkozy, controls the CEA (Commissariat àl’énergie atomique), Areva and the military. This means that Sarkozy controls the bombs and the reactors. As Lalanne pointed out, in selling reactors, Sarkozy is also fundamentally selling theopportunity to make the bomb. Reactors, according to Lalanne, are simply the "alibi" used by non-nuclear weapons countries to aquire te bomb. Read a speech by Lalanne given last year in Malmo, Sweden, on the challenges of a nuclear-armed France. And watch Lalanne on video describe how Sarkozy could derail the disarmament process.