Wednesday, April 25, 2007

France: Vive Les Nukes

This is the transcript from the CBS News 60 Minutes segment on the French nuclear industry which aired April 8, 2007.

I liked the way Mme. Lauvergeon pulled Steve Kroft's tit with her T.V. reference: ""Wind and solar are you know, temporary sources of energy. It works when you have wind, it works when you have sun. No sun, no wind, no energy. You don't want watch TV only when you have wind."

She seems pretty sharp, which makes sense; Forbes ranked her as the 8th most powerful woman in the world. She may have to be, if this headline is to be believed "Areva : la tension monte en Finlande Troisième retard annoncé hier pour le réacteur EPR construit en Finlande par Areva. Le démarrage est repoussé de deux ans, à début 2011."
The story's at La Tribune for 1,50 euro or free in english at Forbes "Areva to take 500 mln eur. charge for Finnish reactor delay "

Following up on the theme of really fast computers, Madame Lauvergeon can probably get time on the CEA supercomputer if she needs it. It's good for just shy of 64 Teraflops, ranking it 7th fastest in the world--smokin'.