Follow the French

摘要

With the world of international finance in turmoil, thank goodness at least one big business deal managed to get done last week. The credit crunch might be hurting us now, but without the purchase of British Energy by French power giant EDF, the UK's next-generation nuclear strategy could have faced a shredding of its own. The fact that so much hinged on the involvement of the French company offers some important lessons for us here in the UK. Some of them are uncomfortable lessons, but learning them could lead the way to a brighter future for our technology economy. The French are reaping the rewards for their decision to place nuclear generation and itsrnassociated technologies at the heart of national policy in the 1970s. Back then, a soaring oil price was threatening to destabilise the global economy and sending shivers down the spines of nations that realised their energy supplies were at the mercy of a small number of producers. Sound familiar? Deja vu indeed.rnThe French response was to look for the generation technology that would offer them maximum independence of supply and control over cost. Nuclear fitted the bill perfectly and its government embarked on the huge development programme that, three decades later, made EDF the natural choice for a nation similarly spooked by energy anxieties and looking for anrnexperienced hand to hold as it faces its nuclear future.