- The percentage of
electricity from nuclear
in France is around 78 percent.
It's highest for a big
country in the world and
represents, this is a
very important thing,
as much energy as all the oil in Kuwait.
- What are the key things
that have let France
be successful in nuclear energy?
- Well, I think that
France has been a country,
in which nuclear has not
been in the middle of
the debate between the left and the right.
Practically all of them,
in the parliaments and
political parties, were
considering that nuclear
was very important for
(foreign language) France.
No?
(speaking foreign language)
And the goal was able to
articulate that very well
and this is very deep in the political
establishments of France.
[Interviewer] - So great education.
- Great education.
And an approach to
consider that nuclear is
science and technology is in our hands.
We know that.
Why we are going to renounce to that?
Why we going to import
oil or gas from, you know,
other countries when we have
scientists and technologies,
which can provide us as
much energy as Kuwait
gives to the world.
And this is very deep in
the political establishment.
Basically the French society
has always considered
that they were benefited
a lot from nuclear power.
France also has a big
tradition of producing
companies which are very efficient.
So really they were able
to articulate a system
which has been efficient.
They decided to standardize
nuclear power plants
with the same technology
and this has proven to be
extremely important to have
a very efficient system.
And I think the success
in France is that through
standardization they were
coming with a model that
represents a very, very
rational approach to
the nuclear power plants.
Because nuclear power
plants are very sensitive to
changes of design, different teams making
the construction, and all that.
- [Interviewer] Sure.
The success of France has
been to standardize all that.
So I think in the decades
to come the main connotation
about France is going to
be the export industry,
how they are going to help
other countries with nuclear.
