One of the first things I noticed when I got off the train at Nogent station were these two huge structures spewing clouds of white smoke. An industry if sorts, I thought but was later told that they are nuclear power plants. It bothered me to see an idyllic and pristine landscape invaded by what we so commonly understand to be monstrous. I still don’t know if the white cloud that didn’t seem to move for more than half a day since this morning was in fact the cloud from the power plant. Eric, our taxi driver last evening jokingly told us to look the other way in order to enjoy the landscape while we passed by the power plants on our way to a concert in Nogent. This report from PBS gives a good overview of France’s success with nuclear power plants and its support from many citizens. A quote from the report: “French people like large projects. They like nuclear for the same reasons they like high speed trains and supersonic jets.” While it may seem like a brash and flamboyant statement, French people also have faith in their technocrats, mostly engineers and scientists who hold high administrative positions – “…bar owner Alain Cauvin cites ‘mad cow disease as being much scarier than nuclear power.'”
Malavika Rajnarayan 