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More Fun With French Nukes
From the book, "Governing the Atom: The Politics of Risk" (1996) by John Byrne and Steven M. Hoffman (pp. 21-2):
"French experience with failure has done little to dampen its enthusiasm; indeed, it has often been the case for the French nuclear industry that failure is simply reinterpreted as another sign of success."
The authors then go on to talk about how a four year delay in the 1470-MWe Chooze B1 reactor was spun as a clever move that helped create a more technically advanced reactor that also better matches the load growth curve. Evidently the Chooze B1 set the record for the longest construction time of a French nuke at 12 years. They also note the previously mentioned Superphénix breeder as being a plant so troubled that it only operated 174 days over the course of 8 years.
"French experience with failure has done little to dampen its enthusiasm; indeed, it has often been the case for the French nuclear industry that failure is simply reinterpreted as another sign of success."
The authors then go on to talk about how a four year delay in the 1470-MWe Chooze B1 reactor was spun as a clever move that helped create a more technically advanced reactor that also better matches the load growth curve. Evidently the Chooze B1 set the record for the longest construction time of a French nuke at 12 years. They also note the previously mentioned Superphénix breeder as being a plant so troubled that it only operated 174 days over the course of 8 years.