The decline of nuclear power is a planet wide trend. Of the 400 working reactors in the world, half will be shut down within 20 years. Following the Fukushima disaster, in Europe Germany gave up on nuclear energy and will close its last plant in 2022. Belgium, Switzerland and Spain will follow suit by abandonning the atom. France, the most nuclear country in the world with 70% of its electrical energy coming from the atom, made an historic swerve in 2020 by retiring Fessenheim, the oldest of its nuclear plants, and 12 other reactors of the remaining 56 will be closed by 2035. What if the clean atom were a smoke-screen? It is true that the nuclear production of electricity emits very little CO2, but does that make it ecologically sound?

Program is in French with English subtitles.

Also available in French: Le nucléaire : une solution pour la planète?