Fix 'em or shut 'em French nuclear safety agency tells EDF

The French nuclear safety authority (ASN) has told the country's national electricity supplier, Électricité de France, that it must invest billions of euros in safety fixes at the country's 58 reactors or choose to close them. A report issued January 3 by ASN said that the investment was needed to ensure French reactors could withstand natural shocks similar to those that precipitated meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant site in Japan. ASN president, André Claude Lacoste, said the agency would have to suspend operations at French reactors if EDF did not meet their timeline for safety fixes. "If EDF estimates that what we are asking for is so expensive that it does no longer make it worthwhile to operate one facility, it can decide to shut that facility," he said. EDF has estimated the cost at 10 billion euros. However, the French presidential election in April 2012 could change the picture again as Socialist opposition candidate, François Holland, has pledged to shut 24 of the reactors by 2025 should he be elected.