To

Dr. Manmohan Singh
The Prime Minister of India,

Dear Prime Minister,

As per some press reports (The Hindu May 16, 2012) you told the Parliament on Wednesday 16/05 that,

“Germany, which had announced that it would close down all its all nuclear plants by 2022, bought electricity from France, a country that relied heavily on atomic energy.”

But this is just the opposite of the truth!

Since 2004, France has always been a net importer of electricity from Germany. The quantity of electricity purchased by France from Germany every year has been between the equivalent production of one or two nuclear reactors.

2004 : 8,7 TWh

2005 : 9,6 TWh

2006 : 5,6 TWh

2007 : 8,2 TWh

2008 : 12,6 TWh

2009 : 11,9 TWh

2010 : 6,7 Twh

You can find this information here (and use internet translation from French to English if required):

And you can further verify the information from the original source (RTE, the French government-owned power distribution company) in the links quoted in the article.

Please note that, although some sources in the previous French government had predicted that Germany would start becoming a net importer of electricity from France after they decided in 2011 to shut down in a planned manner their oldest nuclear plants, this prediction did not happen, and during the last winter, Germany was not only self-sufficient after closing 8 nuclear reactors, but was even capable to help “Atomic France”.

The information is in the same website as above, and the original data can be also verified.

Dear Prime Minister, I don’t know from where you get information on nuclear energy, but from now on, please connect yourself to the internet and personally check the facts about nuclear energy. You may object that as Prime Minister you are too busy to get educated on nuclear energy.  But in the present situation, it is possible that there may be no other way for taking wise decisions on this issue which is so crucial, not only for the economy but for the future of us all on this earth.

It took me 10 minutes of internet search to find the details above!

There are plenty of serious websites, in all languages, from where the information can be cross-checked and verified.

Respectfully Yours,

Laurent Fournier
1/22-E Chittaranjan Colony
Jadavpur, Kolkata-32

For the record, this is the press report from where I read your
statement in Parliament.