2023-08-20 16:28:43
Social media users are circulating a video clip whose publishers claim that it depicts France sinking into darkness due to the suspension of uranium exports from Niger to feed nuclear power plants.
The video depicts streets immersed in darkness, and a commentator is heard saying that in Paris there are buildings and areas that have been cut off from electricity…” The caption accompanying the video reads, “The rationalization of electricity consumption began in Paris because Niger stopped exporting uranium to France for nuclear power plants.”
However, the video is old and has nothing to do with Niger.
The spread of this video comes more than three weeks following the coup in Niger and fears of possible effects on nuclear power plants in France, which depend on uranium.
And on July 26, elements of the Presidential Guard overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, an ally of the West whose election two years ago represented the first peaceful transfer of power in his country since independence.
However, on August 3, the French company Orano (formerly Areva), which operates a large uranium mine in Niger, announced that its work is continuing despite the coup.
Niger has uranium stocks (the main component of the nuclear energy sector) that are among the largest in the world and is the second largest supplier of natural uranium to the European Union in 2022, with a share of 25 percent, following Kazakhstan, according to the EU’s “Euratom” agency.
And ruled out the European Union in early August to affect the military coup in Niger, on the supply of nuclear fuel to the European Union.
“There is no supply risk of this kind when it comes to the European Union,” said European Commission spokesman Adalbert Janz.
He continued, “The European Union facilities have sufficient stocks of natural uranium to reduce any short-term supply risks, and as for the medium and long term, there are enough stocks in the global market to cover the needs of the European Union.”
Video fact
As for the circulating video, it has nothing to do with uranium exports that fuel nuclear power plants in the European Union or France.
Inspection of him leads to a post in December 2022 on the X website (formerly tension), accompanied by a comment stating, “There is a power outage at these moments in several neighborhoods in the French capital, especially in the third and fourth circles.”
Power was cut off at the time in several neighborhoods in the south of the French capital, Paris, which plunged it into darkness. The outage lasted regarding forty-five minutes, and was caused by a technical defect in one of the power transformers of the Enedis company. (free)
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