When I arrived in Avignon this August, the sight of the Rhone River was a feast for thirsty eyes...until my landlady, Marie-Helene Ravel, informed me that the great Rhone is radioactif.
France is John McCain's object lesson on nuclear power. Despite ongoing French-fry bashing by Republicans, McCain cites France's long-running nuclear program as a model America should emulate.
"Non, non, c'est interdit de manger les poissons...," explained Mme. Ravel. You can't eat the fish in the Rhone. Can't swim in it. Above all, you can't drink the water -- which is a serious problem in a semi-arid region like Provence.
I soon discovered that on July 8, there was a fuite (leak) at Le Tricastin, a reactor located in the region. To the residents of Avignon, the event was ordinaire. Leaks happen, inevitably, when you operate 58 reactors on 19 sites.
France's financial survival is tied to its nukes, and the aging boomers who remember Chernobyl are a fading minority. Perhaps this explains why France seems to be firmly encamped on de Nile -- and on buried radioactive waste. A map of the nation posted on Avignon's stone walls by activists shows the rather small country poxed with 33 radura symbols, each representing a nuclear waste site or facility.
The French will tell you sardonically, that when there's a nuclear accident, the press reports a Stage 1 incident. Months or years after the fact, they may learn that, non, it was Stage 3 or 4 (more serious). By that time, tant pis (so what)?
I read up on the July 8 fuite in the newspaper archives of the ancient Avignon library with the help of Mme. Ravel. It was classified as a Stage 1 accident. According to the regional newspaper Vaucluse, which led with the title Fuite d'uranium, 350+ kg. of uranium gushed into the nearby stream. Other newspapers concurred. The articles reflected the locals' anger and frustration at not being told the full story. Days later, the fuite was downgraded to 250+ kg, and the following week, bottomed out at 75 kg. Yet local unrest did not subside. Fishing organizations complained they would sustain major losses. Farmers wanted to know if the radioactive material would percolate into the aquifer, the lifeblood of the region. Absolutely not, officials assured. Their tests indicated that contamination remained at shallow levels.
There are several reactors in the region, which may be one reason why (as I later discovered) the ban on consuming fish or water from the Rhone itself was enacted long before the July incident.
On September 9, Mme. Ravel traveled to Paris and clipped an article for me which stated that not one, but three accidents had occurred at Tricastin this summer, on July 7, July 23, and September 9. The article went on to cite a string of other accidents, including radioactive gas that escaped on multiple occasions between June 20 and July 30 at the Cadarache reactor, two incidents at the Fessenheim facility involving faulty air filtration which were reported on August 11, and on August 21, a uranium leak caused by a damaged pipe at the Pierrelatte facility. The article observed that, despite their banalite, (triviality) these minor Stage 1 incidents can have a 300 year half-life, and how many incidents were not being reported, or even detected?