Presentation of PNC-France

Science has never made as much progress as it does today. Yet ignorance and irrationality reign. Truncated facts, lawsuits, rumors, insinuations obscure reality to the point where we are moving from a knowledge society to a society dominated by obscurantism.

To fight against this drift, women and men of very diverse origins have assembled to help people understand, with some distance and circumspection, the realities underlying ecological issues and, thereby, help inform their elected representatives…

En français

Cartoon: two young people lying in the grass gaze at the sky above a nuclear power plant.

Our convictions

Cartoon: two men, one standing on a track in French colours marked “PPE”, the other on a track in German colours marked “Energiewende”, try to plug their power cables together under a sky of smoke.

Reasoned ecology and climate

Ecology encompasses many subjects but it is clear that the climate issue dominates all the others. If indeed, “the planet is on fire” it is the very existence of humanity which is at stake so that many issues, as important as they are, become secondary. Decarbonizing human activities becomes the priority.

Only a carefully reasoned ecological program, based on scientific and economic studies, leaving no room for emotions or ideologies, will make it possible to traverse the difficult period that lies ahead and to sustain the optimism necessary for its realization.

It is thus necessary to rigorously determine where and how the available resources will be allocated in order to be able to direct them where they will be most effective.

Cartoon: a grid operator worker balancing on a pylon carries a scale between “dispatchable production”, pecked at by a “PPE” crow, and “intermittent production”; below lies the “black-out”.

Act locally

In a society that has become technologically and bureaucratically hypercomplex, the mechanisms of dialogue can easily become blocked and irrationality prevail.

Aware of this situation, PNC-France considers that it is more than ever essential that the French, by acting locally, urge their representatives to anticipate the likely evolution of their assets.

Regarding nuclear installations, which represent a seriously threatened “heritage”, the populations need to help their elected representatives safeguard the prosperity of their territory.

PNC-France aims to assist them by denouncing the incompetence of active minorities who, through political lobbying, have already done great harm to the nuclear industry, inducing costly measures for the consumer and worsening France’s carbon balance.

Cartoon “Back to the cows”: two cows by the water look out over the countryside; the nuclear power plant has disappeared from the landscape, only its reflection remains in the river.

President Accoyer’s appeal Bernard Accoyer

Dear Sir or Madam,

As you know, 2020 will have seen the shutdown of the two Fessenheim reactors and the 4th generation research program, while the Pluriannual Energy Programming (PPE) plans the shutdown of four other reactors before 2028, then eight more before 2035, thus exposing the country to major energy, environmental and financial setbacks.

Giving in to anti-nuclear ideology of another age relayed by powerful lobbies, the public authorities, without saying so clearly, are steering France towards a dangerous downsizing of the sector, or worse, towards nuclear power phase-out. This orientation is all the more paradoxical that France, thanks to nuclear power, is the only country whose electricity is already carbon-free.

These decisions are far-reaching:

Degradation of France’s carbon balance, by reducing the dispatchable production of carbon-free electricity
Huge costs: for finance, industry, society, consumer prices, environment…
Economic and social crisis in the affected territories
Risk of load shedding as early as this winter, or even a catastrophic « blackout »

The irreversible decisions already taken and those announced have led to the creation of the

Association de Défense du Patrimoine Nucléaire et du Climat (PNC-France)
Association for the Defense of Nuclear Heritage and the Climate (PNC-France)

which I have the honor to chair.

Aware of the attention elected officials pay to the prosperity of their communities and territories of choice, I know that they are keen to defend the heritage of their region. However, at the very moment when nuclear energy is recognized worldwide as being essential for containing greenhouse gas emissions, France’s nuclear heritage is in great danger.

This industrial sector with its 225,000 jobs – many of which in your region (directly and above all indirectly) – must be protected.

A pnc-France.org website is being finalized and we will inform you of its opening. It will include regional pages for which we will be sure to contact you so as to animate them.

By returning the attached membership form to us, you make the PNC-France association stronger and more effective in defending the general interest and the economic and social future of your territory.

Best regards,
Bernard Accoyer
Former President of the National Assembly

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