France to audit nuclear plants

France’s Prime Minister François Fillon says he wants increased checks of the country’s nuclear plants in light of the Japan crisis. He called upon the top nuclear safety body to audit France’s several dozen plants by the end of the year.  

Reuters

“I ask you to carry out a study of safety at nuclear installations, in priority nuclear reactors, in light of the ongoing accident at the Fukushima plant,” Fillon wrote in a letter to Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of the Nuclear Safety Authority in Paris.

Fillon vowed to check the safety of all reactors in the country four days after the 11 March tsunami in Japan, which damaged six reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

France is one of the world’s biggest consumers of nuclear energy, with 58 reactors in 19 power plants in use around the country.

Nuclear energy provides around 75 per cent of the country's electricity needs.