We’ve spoken before of the miraculous powers nuclear energy can bestow upon ordinary people. Who can forget nuclear energy giving Jukka Laaksonen, head of Finnish nuclear safety authority STUK, the ability to predict the future? And how about it raising the critically ill from their sickbeds and freeing prisoners in India?

What many people might have missed, however, is the emergence of a truly global nuclear superhero. We are, of course, talking about French president Nicholas Sarkozy and his alter-ego, The Salesman.

While Nicholas is in charge of running France’s economy, health care system, roads, railways, armed forces, and the rest, as The Salesman he flies around the planet – accompanied by his faithful sidekick Atomic Anne - championing nuclear power’s cause. How does he do it? We suspect nuclear energy has given him the ability to do without sleep.

Just look at him here strutting around the Flamanville nuclear power plant last week. No hard hat or high-visibility jacket for The Salesman! You might think he refused to wear them because the hat would spoil his perfectly coiffured hair and the jacket would mean he wouldn’t stand out as well in the publicity photos as he does in his stylish overcoat. But you’d be wrong. The Salesman has no such vain concerns – he simply has no need of safety clothing like us mere mortals.

The construction of the new third generation EPR reactor has been something of a disaster. Safety violations, budget and cost overruns, poor workmanship, faulty welding and cracked concrete in the reactor foundations, confusion over when the reactor will actually be ready. The roads leading to Flamanville are too narrow to transport the large reactor components.

But The Salesman is impervious to such concerns. They are too petty to slow him down. They bounce off him like bullets. Look! There he goes again, off into the sky to spread his radioactive legacy around the world! Up, up and away!