Economist: MY FIRST planned trip to France’s new nuclear-power plant, under construction at Flamanville in Normandy, was cancelled at the last moment. The organisers gave two contradictory reasons: one was that a group of VIPs had taken precedence, the other was that the site had to be closed suddenly for two days. Naturally, I assumed the worst–that something dreadful had happened up there on the French coast. A bit paranoid, perhaps, but even two decades on from Chernobyl it is hard to forget …