French press review

In the spotlight: concerns around the Ukrainian power plant in Zaporizhia

Audio 03:57

The Zaporijjia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been under Russian control since March 2022. © RFI/Anissa El Jabri

By: Fanny Bleichner

4 mins

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Liberation

speaks of “ 

a new threat of massive deterrence

 ”.

For Russia, it is " 

a kind of shield which allows it to store ammunition, but also to launch artillery attacks on the territories under Ukrainian control, on the west bank of the Dnieper, without fear of reprisals

 ".

Attacks have taken place nearby in recent days.

“ 

Moscow and Kyiv accuse each other of endangering nuclear security.

 Today

in France

specifies: 

To guarantee the safety of Ukrainian power plants, the IAEA has established seven main principles.

However, for the moment, five of these seven pillars are no longer guaranteed in Zaporijjia.

The integrity of the installations, the safety of the personnel, the functioning of the security systems, among others, are lacking. 

»

Asked in the columns of

La Croix

, Teva Meyer, Lecturer in geopolitics and geography at the University of Haute-Alsace, recalls that " 

these buildings, sized to withstand the crash of small planes, can withstand shelling , but not to missile fire.

Another problem is cooling 

.

The arrival on site of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency is now long overdue.

A war that has effects on energy, on a European scale

From this Wednesday, August 10, companies in the European Union will no longer be able to import coal from Russia.

This represented 45% of these imports.

Le Figaro

develops: “ 

Europe's options in terms of gas, coal, nuclear and renewable energies to fill the energy gap are very limited and costly.

European demand for coal should however decline again from 2023, predicts the IEA, at least

“assuming a higher availability of nuclear power plants in France than in 2022”.

In its editorial,

the newspaper

speaks of an "

 energy nightmare. "

[...] 

Without a start, we will be condemned to consume coal until indigestion

 “, or the most polluting energy there is, “ 

at a time when logic would require a general mobilization against greenhouse gas emissions

 ”.

Drought intensifies in France

A word in one of

L'Humanité

 : "

 the disaster 

" and this photo of a dry river bed, the cracked earth.

Several avenues are mentioned to reduce water consumption in the field of agriculture: " 

practices of no-tillage and cultivation on plant cover allow

" to develop the life of the soil, therefore improving drainage and better recharging the water table. when it rains, with better quality water because it is filtered by the soil" explains a farmer.

In 10 years, he recounts having gained “ 

200m3 more water per hectare in the soil 

”.

The technique of retaining water pumped into the aquifers is the subject of debate.

Just like another technique, little used in France, in which

Liberation is interested: the

desalination

 of seawater. 

, which allows the water molecules to pass, while stopping the ions that make up the salt.

At the risk, however, of aggravating global warming.

Because once separated from water, salt is often released into the oceans

.

» It is also necessary « to

count between 3 and 8 kWh per cubic meter of drinking water produced.

A significant environmental and economic cost.

 »

Several files on the crisis are shaking the health sector

Le Monde

offers a survey in the field of geriatrics and affirms it bluntly: “ 

We don't age well in France.

 [...]

The stake, unlike private nursing homes, marked in particular by the Orpea scandal, is not the greed of shareholders or business leaders, but the escheat of a public service unable to provide posts.

In the end, the result is similar: the risk of a significant deterioration in life expectancy in good health, even though France is already obtaining mediocre results in comparison with other Western countries

 ", can we read.

La Croix

, for its part, notes a more or less similar situation in maternity wards.

The same precariousness, then, at the two extremes of life.

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