A recent AFP article reports on the future of nuclear power in Europe.

Nuclear power, the long-time foe of the environmental movement, is returning to favour in many countries where issues of energy dependency and the rising cost of fossil fuels are driving policy changes.

On Monday, Britain announced a public consultation on its future energy supplies, raising the spectre of a return to nuclear power, and France stressed the need for nuclear energy as part of future EU policy during representations in Brussels.

Fossil fuels are estimated at present to provide about 80 percent of the world's energy, but production of gas and oil could reach its maximum in the next three decades, experts say.

Jean-Marie Chevallier, a director of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and professor at France's Paris-Dauphine university, sees the debate about nuclear power as "logical" in the current environment.

Europe's dependence on foreign gas has come under the spotlight in recent weeks following a standoff between Russia and Ukraine at the start of the year, which saw supplies temporarily reduced to some EU countries.

Furthermore, environmental concerns and the perceived inadequacy of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels have pushed nuclear power back up the agenda.

Nuclear energy appears to be "a partial solution," said Chevallier, who stressed that only three European countries had recently decided to build new nuclear power stations -- France, Finland and Romania.

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