PRESS RELEASE
`Atomic G-7' Emerged from Washington Meetings
April 16, 2007 (EIRNS)—The French daily Libération ran an article with the prominent headline "Atomic G-7," today, based on a statement made by the G7 finance ministers at the end of their April 13 meeting in Washington. The final communiqué, as quoted in Libération and in an April 14 Agence France Presse (AFP) wire, states that in order to ensure their "energy security and to address climate change, we consider energy efficiency and the promotion of energy diversification to be important issues for both developed and developing economies. Diversification can include advanced energy technologies such as renewable, nuclear, and clean coal. We agree that market-based policy measures should be effectively designed to meet specific conditions in each country."
The articles underline that the G-7 countries had not earlier able to come to an agreement on mentioning "the atom" because of Germany's opposition, before now, but that the rise in oil prices and the growth of energy nationalism in countries such as Russia, Venezuela, and Iran, have led these countries to change their minds.
AFP stresses that the fact that nuclear power produces no CO2, has allowed this type of energy to appear as "excellent." AFP writes: "France, which has been fighting for a long time to have nuclear power accepted as a 'clean' and renewable alternative to hydrocarbons, hailed this initiative in Washington. French Finance Minister Thierry Breton welcomed it, stating, 'It was not the first time I tried, but it was the first time it was accepted unanimously.'" France draws 78% of its electricity consumption from nuclear power, ccompared to 16% in the rest of the world. Libération proffers the Trojan horse argument, that nuclear energy is the best green energy there is, the "French will" to encourage the French multinational AREVA to interject itself into the huge "American nuclear market," which must be renewed in the coming period. AREVA already furnishes maintenance to 60% of the U.S. power plants, and hopes to sell four third-generation nuclear power plants—EPR—in the coming period.
