Dear friends of clean nuclear energy,

First of all, some general infos about EFN. Our worldwide membership continues to grow and EFN now gathers close to 9000 members and supporters in 56 countries. Several high-profile environmentalists and famous politicians have joined our ranks recently and now support our action, such as :

Ari Vatanen, from Finland, member of the European Parliament, former car racing champion. He is a living legend and has joined the Committee of Honorary Members of EFN. Ari Vatanen is one of the greatest champions in the history of car racing: 10 times world rally champion and quadruple winner of the famous Paris-Dakkar rally (1987, 1989, 1990 and 1991) See his web site http://www.arivatanen.com and his article describing the benefits of clean nuclear power (published in The Scotsman) : http://www.ecolo.org/media/articles/articles.in.english/Vatanen-scotsman-2007.doc

David McColl is a young and brilliant canadian economist, oil and energy expert, see :
http://www.zoominfo.com/people/McColl_David_691528167.aspx
http://www.zoominfo.com/people/McColl_David_410180544.aspx
http://www.yapca.com/ourmessage_f.htm

Michel Rocard, former French Prime Minister, Christian Pierret, former Minister of Industry and Trade, and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, President of the group of experts on the environment in the French Parliament, author of the French environnemental charter added to the French Constitution.

Mrs. Gul Goktepe, a famous Turkish environmentalist and scientist, joins the Scientific Committee of EFN : she was recently awarded the environmental BLACK SEA MEDAL by the United Nations (UNDP) for her life-long action in protecting the Black Sea against pollution and for her exemplary involvment since many years with various environmental NGOs. More information on Gul Goktepe.

We warmly welcome these new supporters of our action, and all the new members of EFN!

If you are in contact with world leading scientists, champions, singers, actors, politicians or other opinion leaders, encourage them to join EFN, and invite your friends to join us as well !

Instructions on how to join the Committee of Honorary Members of EFN (for high-profile personalities, just send us a fax, or visit card or the completed form saying you or the personality agree to become a member) or join as an ordinary member.

The more supporters we gather, the more powerful we are to push the cause of clean nuclear energy, which is the main part of the solution to the world's coming energy crisis !

AN ECOLOGIST FOR NUCLEAR POWER IN THE OIL SANDS : Mike Byfield has published a long article on the environmental benefits of nuclear power in the Daily Oil Bulletin : http://www.dobmagazine.nickles.com/columns/pulse.asp?article=magazine/columns/070226/MAG_COL2007_FQ0000.html It is encourageing (and quite a change!) to see that some leaders and journalists in the oil business are now seriously considering and promoting the benefits of nuclear power. EFN-CANADA is particularly active in Alberta (thanks to gary and our friends there). And I personnally have a special connection to that province as I grew up there most of my childhood - 7 years. EFN-CANADA has been proposing the construction of nuclear reactors in Northern Alberta for over a year. Initially, and until a few months ago, we felt quite lonely with this proposition. Now this project is being seriously studied and considered at the highest provincial and federal level in Canada. Nuclear energy is a major solution to avoid a major gas supply crisis in Northern America and to avoid the doubling of the atmospheric emissions as the energy-intensive exploitation of oilsands develops. See some of our documents and press articles on the action of EFN (Environmentalists For Nuclear) in Alberta : click on the files starting with "oilsands" in the list you will find here : http://www.ecolo.org/documents/documents_in_english/

EARTH DAY IN EDMONTON : EFN-CANADA held a booth there. Gary at the booth on the picture below.

FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

A few comments on the French Presidential elections.

EFN wrote to all 12 candidates during the campaign ago to question them on their energy program, see the letter and the questionnaire we used here (in French) : http://www.ecolo.org/elections/questionnaire-presid-fr-07.doc. It's always useful to remind the candidates about the existence of EFN as a grass-root organization pushing for clean nuclear energy they receive numerous letters from antinuclear groups and this is counter-balanced by EFN). We suggest that our local correspondents in other countries might translate and adapt these documents for elections in their own countries.

Up to this day, for the French Presidential Election, EFN received 5 answers to the 12 letters sent out :

- Nicolas Sarkozy answered a very nice and long personal letter, giving the correct answers to almost every question. He is strongly in favor of the environmental benefits of nuclear power, both 3rd generation (EPR reactor being built in Finland and in Normandy) and 4^th generation. See Nicolas Sarkozy's 4 page letter to EFN describing his intentions in the field of nuclear energy (in French). He is by far the most pro-nuclear of the 12 candidates. Nicolas Sarkozy is the winner of the first round so far with a historically high score of 31.2% (which is very high for a first round with 12 candidates, Jacques Chirac in 2002 obtained only 19.9% in the first round). He is in leading position for the second round, but not yet elected. He will be opposed in the second round in two weeks to the left-wing socialist candidate Ségolène Royal who stands somewhere between neutral to nuclear energy and strongly anti-nuclear (in fact, she changes her mind around quite a bit).

- Ségolène Royal (25.9%) arrived in second position and therefore will be opposing Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round. As concerns nuclear power, she has said and written lot's of things (often contradicting herself). She first declared she would suspend the construction of the EPR and would anvisage a rapid closure of the Fessenheim reactor (two safe and clean PWR reactors of 900 MW each working quite well) and reduce the share of nuclear power in the French electricity production down from 80% to 50% by 2015 (which implies stopping about 15-20 reactors of the 58 reactors). She has chosen the highly controversial Bruno Rebelle (former President of Greenpeace-France) as her energy adviser during her campaign. But her position has somewhat evolved and softened as months passed by. For her current position on energy matters, one should now refer to her program of 100 propositions which were negociated with the pro-nuclear left-wing Jean-Pierre Chevènement. Her more recent propositions are more reasonable : she now just mentions a reduction in the share of nuclear power and an increase in renewables, but the figure of 50% in 2015 (down from 80%) has disappeared from her program. For the EPR reactor being built in Normandy (the construction has just recently started), she said that a new public debate should be organized (although a public debate on the EPR has recently taken place in 2006 and led to the construction) without any precision about her intentions and the possible outcome of the debate. The Socialist Party she represents made some rather negative declarations about the EPR reactor, but Ségolène constantly says she is free from all parties, even her own party. In this case, French politics is not based on reason, and even the French have some difficulty in knowing what she might do or not after she gets elected. If she wins the second round, this would probably not be good news for nuclear power, but her political inspirer, late President François Mitterand had also made antinuclear promises before his first election and rapidly changed his mind after being elected.

- François Bayrou arrives as the third man with 18.6%. He is rather in favor of nuclear power, although sometimes with some nuances. Unfortunately, Corinne Lepage, famous anti-nuclear activist and right-wing politician has now teamed with him. François Bayrou will not be running in the second round (as only the first two candidates oppose each other in the second round) but the votes of his electors will play a major role in the outcome of the second round. Because his position is in the centre, it is not clear if his voters will prefer Nicolas Sarkozy or Ségolène Royal in the second round.

- Marie-Georges Buffet also made a very good answer (see her letter to EFN) : pro-nuclear, pro-energy-conservation, pro-EPR, pro-generation 4, pro-ITER, good answers for EFN. However she represents only 1.9% of the voters.

- José Bové, Jean-Marie Le Pen and Arlette Laguiller, also answered (click on each name to see their answers).

In short, here are the official results for the 12 candidates grouped in three categories (for, uncertain, against nuclear power).

Are in favor of nuclear power and do not question the EPR being constructed (7 candidates out of 12, representing 67% of the voters in the first round) :

- Nicolas Sarkozy (31.2%) (right-wing, UMP)
- François Bayrou (18.6%) (center-wing, social-democrat, UDF)
- Jean-Marie Le Pen (10.4%) (far right, Front national)
- Philippe de Villiers (2.2%) (right wing)
- Marie-George Buffet (1.9%) (communist party)
- Arlette Laguiller (1.3%) (leftist party)
- Frédéric Nihous (1.2%) (party of hunters, nature and tradition)
- Gérard Schivardi (0.3%) (leftist party)

Uncertain or changeing position towards nuclear power (1 candidate out of 12, representing 26 % of the voters in the first round) :

- Ségolène Royal (25.9%) (socialist party)

Firmly opposed to nuclear power (3 small candidates out of 12, representing 7% of the voters in the first round) :

- Olivier Besancenot (4.1%) (far left)
- José Bové (1.3%) (a strange mixture of anti-everything, environmentalism and anti-globalization)
- Dominique Voynet (1.6%) (French Greens, down from 5.3% in 2002).

It is quite clear that most of the candidates (7/12) support nuclear power, representing 67% of the public, including the leading candidate for the second round, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The socialist candidate has an uncertain and changeing position and represents 26 % of the voters (second round candidate Ségolène Royal).

Only a rather small minority of 3 among the 12 candidates, representing a tiny 7% of the voters are firmly opposed to nuclear power.

FRENCH PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

Write to the candidates in your region !

A few weeks after the Presidential election, the Parliamentary elections will take place to elect a new French Parliament.

Just as EFN wrote to the candidates of the Presidential election 2007, we will also be contacting and writing to the 5000 or so candidates running for Parliament. Here's how :

- all EFN members and local correspondents throughout France are invited to print and send the letter and questionnaire presenting EFN's views to the candidates in their township. See the proposed standard letter, questionnaire and information to be sent to the candidates running for Parliament (WORD file), and don't forget to join a presentation and membership subscription form of EFN (PDF files).
- all answers received from the candidates are to be copied to EFN (for future elections in other countries : to EFN-USA, or EFN-CANADA, or the local EFN branch in your country) by email or fax.
- encourage the greatest possible number of your friends, colleagues and relatives to do the same. The more letters a candidate receives, the more he will be inclined to take our views in consideration for his political program before his election and in his political action after the election.
- We strongly encourage all our members and local correspondents in other countries around the world to translate and adapt this letter and the questionnaire to use them for future elections in your own country. Send us the translated documents which we will upload on the web site and make available to our other members in your country.
- and of course don't forget to test your knowledge on nuclear power by yourself answering the questionnaire, and check your answers !

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING CLEAN NUCLEAR ENERGY,

Although the internet is almost free, running an organization such as EFN and setting up new branches does cost some money, therefore donations are welcome to support our work and help us create and develop new branches around the world.

Yours sincerely, 

 Bruno Comby.

President of EFN
Environmentalists For Nuclear Energy (International)

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