Nuclear Power: Can Six Million Frenchmen Be Wrong?

Photo: French nuclear facility. From "Nuclear Reaction: Why Do Americans Fear Nuclear Power?"

That's roughly how many French had toured their country's 58 nuclear plants at the time we aired this report. In fact, over the decades it's become a popular outing, filled with kids, families and friends.

So VIEW here an intriguing little clip on why those French really like nuclear! As usual, a bunch of unique cultural characteristics go into explaining their longtime trust in this technology.

But now -- it's "Trust But Verify" following Japan's nuclear crisis. Yesterday, the French government said it's taking a second look at risks and safety measures at its nuclear facilities -- for nature can indeed unleash simultaneously more than one catastrophic event.

And ... why not check out our 1997 report, "Nuclear Reaction: Why Do Americans Fear Nuclear Power?" What a reaction we got to that one.

The report took on the anti-nuclear power industry. Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atom Bomb, along with scientists and engineers, make a provocative case that nuclear energy -- at the time being abandoned by the United States following Three Mile Island -- is safer, cleaner and more efficient than coal, oil and natural gas.