The big news today for France, and indeed for the rest of the world, is that the French government has announced its intention to build a second European Pressurized Reactor (EPR). The plan will be to build it at the Penly nuclear plant, six miles from Dieppe.

The Areva-designed EPR is a third generation state of the art reactor. With many countries around the world considering building EPRs of their own, France is showing that it leads the way in global nuclear technology.

What we mean is that France is leading the way to danger, scandal, failure and ridicule. Let us not mince our words: The EPR nuclear reactor is an enormous and dangerous joke.

There are only two currently under construction in the world today, in Olkiluoto, Finland and Flamanville, France. Both projects have faced an almost identical set of massive problems and shortcomings. The EPR reactor design is unimaginably complex and so the construction of one involves the employment of hundreds, if not thousands, of contractors, sub-contractors, sub-sub-contractors, sub-sub-sub…

This complexity - and the project leaders’ inability to manage it - has led to spectacular displays of incompetence and scandal during the construction at both sites.

Construction began first at the Finnish site – the project is now more than three years late and seriously over budget. However, when construction later began on the second EPR in France, it was clear from the outset that lessons had not been learned from the Finnish experience.

Foundation concrete was not poured properly at both sites leading to cracking. Welding processes in both reactors’ framework and support structures was not done properly and the welders were not trained or supervised to the vital required safety standards. The same contractor, Bouygues, was responsible for the welding scandals in both cases.

Because that is what EPR is – a scandal. Both current projects are massively over-budget and behind schedule. The reactor at Olkiluoto was supposed start generating electricity in April this year but will not now go online until 2012 at the earliest. The Finnish project in particular has seen the concealment and cover-up of information concerning extremely serious safety failures. Workers were threatened with sanctions if they spoke out about safety concerns.

Again we see the French government throwing away billions of euros on a failed technology in which we can have no confidence or trust. EPR is a dangerous distraction from the fight to beat global climate change. This money could and should have a direct impact in establishing proven and long term renewable energy and energy efficiency programmes in France – programmes that can be established in a fraction of the time it takes to build an EPR reactor.

We’ve seen nothing to suggest that the nuclear industry can or will learn from its mistakes or that this new EPR will not follow the same pattern. When it comes to the fight against new EPR reactors, this is the reason to be optimistic: the incompetence, greed and mendacity of those designing, financing and building them are some of the best weapons in our armoury.