First Biden Administration State Dinner

@SusanInFlorida Next you'll want to know if such a yuge dinner party was planned primarily to be twice the size of the state dinner Trump gave for Macron. 🤪

@dancingtongue why does macron keep coming here? are we secretly funding his military, or something? tariff reductions on cheese and wine?

@SusanInFlorida Are you asking Macron's motives or ours? Our relationship has been a little rocky from France's view: we sabotaged a deal they had to sell submarines to Australia by upping the anti and offering the Aussie's nuclear powered subs, and the recent legislation providing incentives for electric vehicles cut their auto makers out of the EV business here, and they don't think we are doing enough on climate change. From our viewpoint, since Merkel stepped down in Germany, Macron has been the most important EU player in the boycott of Russia and support of the Ukraine as well as a key player in dealing with ISIS and other terrorist groups in the Middle East and Africa.

@dancingtongue i doubt if "sabotage" was the underlying motive. the pentagon probably wanted australia to have the latest technology, and subs capable of interfacing with our defense network. france isn't really a regional power anywhere, and nobody is claiming their tech -especially submarines - is world class. they can't even make a world class front line fighter jet any more.

@SusanInFlorida Perception is in the eye of the beholder. The French did have a tentative deal with the Aussies to buy their subs, but had been in negotiations with the U.S. concurrently for the nuclear subs. Getting all the approvals on our end was a long drawn out process given it involved nuclear technology, and particularly since it drug out over two administrations. The range of the nuclear subs far more fits the strategic needs of the Aussies (and us) in the Pacific region, so when it was approved there was no doubt about the best option for Australia. If France had any legitimate complaint, it was with the Aussies over whatever tentative agreement they had, but it felt more like sabotage to them.

@dancingtongue france DOES have one legitimate claim to technological evidence. their nuclear power network (based on 25 year old GE designs) is safe, affordable, and scalable.

@SusanInFlorida And both Macron and Biden mentioned it as an area both would be pursuing in future areas of partnership on climate change. The issue, of course, always remains how to dispose of the waste.

@dancingtongue France actually stores the waste ON SITE at the nuclear reactors. So that the same safety protocols and security staff can be leveraged for the entire process. They're a model for the rest of the world

@SusanInFlorida

Dude, you keep jumping into conversations, left and right, spreading false information.

The first two French commercial reactors, were baed on a Westinghouse, not GE design, and it was not a 25-year old Westinghouse design. The design was improved, and then Westinghouse starting following French designs. Since the 1980s, the French have sailed psst everyone else, and have the most advanced, and safest designs out there, generating 70% of France's power needs.

In addition, NO, the nuclear waste is not stored at the plants. 90% of the waste is made up of filters, resins, valves, vinyl and fabric, metals and rubble, with low levels of radioactivity and limited half-lives; Waste is stored at Orano’s La Hague plant, and another facility is under construction. between Meuse and Haute-Marne.